Who Ordered the Release of the National Assembly Camera Footage Online: ‘Zhoghovurd’

‘Zhoghovurd’ newspaper reports that during a meeting of the National Assembly’s legal committee on March 31, an incident occurred between the committee chairman, Vladimir Vardanyan of the ruling ‘Civil Contract’ faction, and opposition lawmaker Mher Sahakyan from the ‘Armenia’ faction, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

As we noted earlier, the dispute arose after opposition lawmakers, represented by the secretary of the ‘Armenia’ faction, Artavazd Minasyan, spoke about the Rome Convention during a closed session, mentioning the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and stating that the current authorities are bringing upon us yet more calamity. Vardanyan responded, asserting that the ARF was the harbinger of calamities, prompting an outburst from Sahakyan: “Don’t shout, don’t raise your voice.” Vardanyan retorted, “I’ll shout at whoever I want, I’ll do whatever I want.” Vardanyan then approached Sahakyan and said something, to which Sahakyan retaliated with a blow.

Hours after the incident, recordings from the cameras installed in the National Assembly building were spread across the internet and social media. Notably, these recordings were first disseminated by news outlets affiliated with the government.

It is significant that the most active in this regard was medianews, founded by the deputy chief of staff to the Prime Minister, Taron Chakhoyan. This raises questions about whether he utilized his leverage to acquire and be the first to publish those videos.

ArmLur.am attempted to clarify with Chakhoyan how the footage first emerged in his media outlet, but he responded, “A lot of things are being associated with my name, but that doesn’t mean I have any connection.” Naturally, he is trying to deny both any connection and the use of his official position to obtain the footage; however, the facts speak for themselves.

Additionally, a service investigation has been initiated in the National Assembly to determine how the camera footage was disseminated. Laura Antonyan, head of the NA press service, informed us of this. ArmLur.am will pursue this matter to uncover how the recordings captured by the cameras managed to enter the public domain.

More details can be found in today’s issue of the newspaper.