Tag: Pashinyan

Pashinyan Will Have Blood on His Hand If French-Armenian Dies at Yerevan Airport By Harut Sassounian The California Courier

French-Armenian journalist Leo Nicolian has been on a hunger strike at the Yerevan airport for 16 days, after being banned from entering Armenia.

Nicolian, 57, is an aggressive investigative journalist who has generated plenty of controversy due to his revelations about important figures. He has been on the frontlines of the conflict in Artsakh and the recent clashes on the Israel-Lebanon border. He was wounded during both conflicts.

In the past 30 years, Nicolian has visited Armenia and Artsakh dozens of times and interviewed key leaders. However, what he encountered at the Yerevan airport during his latest visit two weeks ago was completely unexpected and shocking.

In early April, Nicolian had gone to the village of Voskepar in the Tavoush District of Armenia and interviewed Primate of the Tavoush Diocese Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan who has been leading the popular movement in opposition to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent decision to turn over four Armenian border villages to Azerbaijan.

Later in April, when Nicolian tried to return to Armenia, he was told by immigration officials at the Yerevan airport that he was not allowed to enter the country. When he asked why, he was told that he “presented a danger to Armenia’s security.” This is a ridiculous accusation because Nicolian is a professional journalist who has not violated any Armenian laws and committed no crimes.

Regrettably, Nicolian is not the only Diaspora Armenian who is banned from entering Armenia. There have been several others who were told after landing at the Yerevan airport that they are not allowed to visit the country. None of them has done anything illegal or criminal to warrant such a harsh measure. Besides, if they had violated any laws or presented a danger to Armenia’s security, they should have been arrested at the airport and turned over to the courts to decide their fate. No official, regardless of his rank or position, has the right to make arbitrary decisions on behalf of the judiciary.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Pashinyan has no right to decide who can enter the country. Armenia is not his private residence. He can’t decide whom to allow or not allow in. Armenia is the homeland of all 10 million Armenians worldwide and no official has the right to ban any one of them to enter the country in the absence of a legal reason.

Nicolian and several other Diaspora Armenians are banned from entering Armenia simply because they dared to criticize Pashinyan’s defeatist policies. The Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed to be a democrat. However, freedom of expression is one of the basic principles of democracy which is frequently violated by the authorities in Armenia who have turned the country into a one-man rule — a dictatorship.

To make matters worse, after Mourad Papazian, a prominent French-Armenian critic of Pashinyan, was not allowed to enter Armenia, he filed a lawsuit in an Armenian court which found the government’s ban illegal. Since Armenian officials had 30 days to file an appeal to reverse the lower court’s decision, no one knew if they would file such an appeal. Fortunately, when Pashinyan visited Paris in the midst of those 30 days, President Emmanuel Macron met privately with Papazian and Pashinyan and urged the Prime Minister to abandon his pursuit of Papazian. Pashinyan reluctantly agreed to drop the appeal, but it was shameful that the head of a foreign country had to intervene in an Armenian domestic matter.

Meanwhile, Nicolian has been languishing at the Yerevan airport for the past 16 days. During our multiple phone conversations, he told me that he will continue his hunger strike even if it leads to his death. His life is at risk because he has several serious ailments. From time to time, local medical staff comes to measure his blood pressure and gives him some injections. He is not allowed to leave the airport for any medical treatment. In recent days, an ambulance was sent to the airport to check his blood pressure, his heart, and give him another injection.

Nicolian’s status is in limbo. He tells me that because he is in the airport’s internationally protected “neutral zone,” Armenian officials cannot take any action against him. They have tried to convince him to board a flight to Paris which he has refused. They have also offered him sandwiches and water which he has turned down.

Nicolian told me that he is committed to starve himself to death at the Yerevan airport. He thinks that his death will bring shame to the Prime Minister. I am not sure he is correct. I think that it will bring shame to the reputation of the Republic of Armenia.

The French Embassy in Yerevan, contrary to its diplomatic obligations, has refused to visit its own citizen to inquire about his condition. This is the vindictive position of the local French Ambassador because Nicolian had exposed the Ambassador’s scandals in the media. The French Foreign Ministry has also not shown any interest in the welfare of Nicolian, since he has publicly criticized the French President in the past.

Even though Nicolian has antagonized many individuals and organizations due to his harsh criticisms and abrasive personality, Armenians have an obligation to do whatever they can to publicize his critical situation and save the life of a fellow Armenian before he starves to death.

I urge the citizens of Armenia to hold protests in front of Prime Minister’s building in Yerevan, demanding that Nicolian be allowed to enter Armenia. Protests should also be held in front of the French Embassy in Yerevan.

French-Armenians should also hold protests in Paris in front of the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Palace seeking their intervention with the government of Armenia.

Should Nicolian die in the Yerevan airport due to his prolonged hunger strike, Prime Minister Pashinyan will have blood on his hands, so will French President Macron.

With each passing day, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements contradicting Armenia’s national interests are getting increasingly alarming

Pashinyan started by denigrating Mt. Ararat, the preeminent Armenian symbol. He then mocked Armenia’s coat of arms, questioning why there is a lion on it, claiming that there are no lions in Armenia. With this statement, Pashinyan made three factual errors:

1) He did not seem to realize that the lion symbolizes courage and strength. It has nothing to do with whether there are lions in Armenia or not;

2) There are over a dozen countries that have a lion on their coat of arms without having a single lion in their countries;

3) He is also incorrect that there are no lions in Armenia. A well-known oligarch has had several lions in his Yerevan mansion for many years.

The Prime Minister then made abusive remarks about Armenia’s national anthem using the excuse that it contains the word “enemy.” There are several other countries that have the word enemy in their national anthems.

Pashinyan went on to complain that what is now called “Army of Armenians” (Hayots Panag) should be “Armenia’s Army” (Hayastani Panag), and that textbooks on the “History of Armenians” (Hayots Badmoutyoun) should be called “Armenia’s History” (Hayastani Badmoutyoun). He also wants to distance today’s Armenia from its past by contrasting “Real Armenia” with “Historical Armenia.” He then suggested, in line with Pres. Aliyev’s demand, that Armenia adopt a new constitution deleting the references to Artsakh and the Armenian Genocide.

Last week, I wrote about one of Pashinyan’s top lieutenants’ incredible suggestion to make a list of all 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide. This is an indirect way of questioning the veracity of the Armenian Genocide.

All of these statements indicate that Pashinyan is retreating from Armenia’s and Armenians’ nationalistic stands to appease Azerbaijan and Turkey.

To make matters worse, on April 24, 2024, the Prime Minister issued a statement full of confusing words which reflect his unstable mental state. He referred to the Armenian Genocide as Meds Yeghern (Great Crime) 11 times and only four times as Genocide. Meds Yeghern is a term that Armenians used until the 1940’s to describe the Genocide before the term genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin. Since then, the proper and legal term that should be used is Genocide or Tseghasbanoutyoun, in Armenian.

It does not come as a surprise that Pashinyan, in his April 24 statement, once again obfuscated the meaning of the term genocide thus continuing his attempts to downplay Armenian national symbols and terminology.

Pashinyan complained that due to the Meds Yeghern, Armenia often deals with other countries in a state of trauma or shock: “for this reason, sometimes we cannot correctly distinguish the realities and factors, historical processes and predictable horizons. Maybe this is also the reason why we get new shocks, reliving the trauma of the Armenian Genocide as a legacy and as a tradition.”

By making such a statement, Pashinyan is blaming the trauma from the Genocide of 1915 for his incompetent decisions and mismanagement of the State. While it is true that there is such a thing as transgenerational trauma, I would advise the Prime Minister to look at his own inability to rule rather than the trauma from the Genocide.

Pashinyan then surprisingly suggested that Armenians “stop searching for a homeland, because we have found that homeland, our Promised Land, where milk and honey flow.”

It appears that Pashinyan has lost all perceptions of reality! He is describing Armenia with its existential problems as “the Promised Land where milk and honey flow!” More likely, he and his family are the ones living a luxurious life at the Armenian taxpayers’ expense.

The only people who were pleased with Pashinyan’s April 24 message are the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. An indication of that pleasure was the crowd of Turks gathered on April 24 in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., chanting: “Pashinyan, Pashinyan, Pashinyan,” in the faces of Armenian protesters.

The President of Turkey, as he has done on every April 24 ever since 2014, issued a statement trying to fool the international community that he is acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. He actually lumped together Armenians and Turks and everyone else “who passed away or were martyred as a consequence of armed conflicts, rebellions, gang violence and terrorist acts” during “World War I.” He thus misrepresented the Armenian victims of genocide as war casualties. He described “the 1915 events” not as genocide, but a “tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.”

In a direct message to Pashinyan, Erdogan stated that “Türkiye’s ties with Armenia … appear to depend on Yerevan’s stance on the issue [of genocide]… A new order is being established in the region, and it is time to set aside baseless claims. It is time to move forward with realities on the ground. It is better than moving forward with fabrications, tales.” This sounds very similar to what Pashinyan is trying to do. Erdogan made the intent of his message more obvious when he said: “Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan understands this [reality].” As a final dig, Erdogan stated: “I hope Armenia escapes from the darkness it was condemned to, thanks to its diaspora, and chooses the path of new beginnings.”

The true meaning of Erdogan’s words was revealed when the Istanbul Governor’s Office once again banned the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24. Actions speak louder than words!

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his equally incompetent underlings have been making for months anti-Armenian statements. He started with denigrating Mount Ararat and then went on to criticize Republic of Armenia’s constitutionally-protected official symbols: the national anthem and coat of arms.

Pashinyan also suggested that Armenia needs to adopt a new Constitution deleting its references to Artsakh and the Armenian Genocide which are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. He repeatedly makes the artificial distinction between “Historical Armenia” and what he calls “Real Armenia,” meaning today’s Republic of Armenia, which is a small part of the Armenian Homeland.

Pashinyan has also been obsessed with begging for peace from hostile Azerbaijan which has no interest in making peace with Armenia. Pres. Ilham Aliyev’s only goal is the total destruction of Armenia, a country whose existence he rejects, calling it “Western Azerbaijan.” Regrettably, Pashinyan makes the excuse for all of his defeatist and compromising statements, using the scare tactic that if Armenia doesn’t comply with Azerbaijan’s demands, it would start a new war!

Through one of his obedient servants, Pashinyan is now questioning the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, under the guise of confirming the real facts of the genocide. The latest scandal began with a highly questionable statement by Antranik Kocharyan, Chairman of the Parliament’s Defense and Security Committee and senior member of Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party. Delving into subjects that are unrelated to his office, Kocharyan cast doubt about the facts of the Armenian Genocide. Naturally, the Azeri and Turkish media were extremely pleased with his statement.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe Armenian Service on April 14, Kocharyan said that Pashinyan’s goal is to build “real foundations” related to the Genocide and to “make the list of compatriots subjected to genocide more objective.” Furthermore, he stressed that it is necessary to have the names of all Armenians subjected to genocide and verify “where, how and under what conditions” they were killed. Insisting on his misguided statement, the very next day he repeated it during a press briefing in parliament.

Nevertheless, after coming under harsh criticism, Kocharyan claimed that he was expressing his personal views, not those of his political party, thus shielding Pashinyan from his irresponsible words. However, it is clear that Kocharyan would not have dared to make such a controversial statement without the prior approval of his boss, the Prime Minister, who single-handedly makes all governmental decisions. Besides, Kocharyan himself referenced Pashinyan in his statement about the Genocide.

“This is a simple goal for us to know the addresses and locations of each of our 1.5 million compatriots. It is very important for the building of our relations [with Turkey] in the future as well,” Kocharyan said. “April 24 is approaching. Was it 1.5 million, 2 million or less? It should be strictly addressed. But if we don’t record it, the other side [Turkey] can always say that no such thing happened. And till today that have been saying so,” he added.

This is a very dangerous statement to be made by a high-ranking Armenian official. It is nothing less than parroting the Turkish denialist thesis which has for decades minimized the number of Armenian victims, saying that it is far fewer than 1.5 million and cynically asking, where are the bodies of the dead? Now comes a member of Armenia’s ruling party giving credence to the Turkish denials.

Seeking to verify the number of Armenian Genocide victims is problematic for other reasons. One hundred and nine years after the genocide, Kocharyan has come up with the ‘brilliant’ idea of counting the number of the victims. It is impossible for anyone to go back in time and document the names and locations of all 1.5 million Armenian victims. There are no graves and no traces of the victims. Entire families with all their relatives were wiped out.

Secondly, if Kocharyan goes ahead with his shortsighted suggestion, I doubt that it would be possible to come up with more than a couple of hundred thousand names of victims. This will be the greatest gift anyone can give to denialist Turks. The minute that relatively small number of victims is collected and announced, Turkish denialists will declare that Armenians just proved that there was no genocide and nowhere close to 1.5 million victims. The Turkish government will tell the world that it has been saying for a century that the genocide is a big lie and Armenians finally proved it.

Neither Kocharyan nor denialist Turks have the slightest notion about the United Nations’ definition of genocide which is based on the intent to kill a particular group of people, “in whole or in part,” without specifying the minimum number of victims. So the whole exercise is not only a waste of time, but also counterproductive.

I have a better idea. I wrote a column years ago suggesting that Armenians set up a “Wall of Shame” and list on it all those who have denied the Armenian Genocide since 1915, including denialist Turks and non-Turks, including some Armenians.

To make matters worse, Zareh Sinanyan, Armenia’s “Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs,” in a TV interview last week, shockingly welcomed Kocharyan’s unwise words, stating that he “likes the idea very much.” We should not be too surprised that, contrary to his title, Sinanyan has made several statements which are contrary to Armenia’s and Diaspora’s interests.

If Pashinyan continues making his anti-Armenian statements, what will he announce next? The outlawing of the burning of the Turkish flag on April 24 in Yerevan or closing down the Genocide Monument and Museum, using his usual scare tactic that otherwise Turkey will attack?

It is sad that on the eve of the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we have to deal with Armenians who are serving the cause of Turkish genocide denialists rather than advancing our just demands from Turkey.

We all know the disasters that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan brought upon Armenia in addition to losing Artsakh due to his incompetence.

We can cite Pashinyan’s many misguided actions and contradictory statements. Following his complete mismanagement of the military as Commander-in-Chief during the 2020 war, Pashinyan is now making sure that Armenians forget about the loss of Artsakh by wiping out its name from people’s memory.

Pashinyan took no action to protect Artsakh Armenians’ right to live peacefully in their millennia-old homeland. He also made no advance preparations to house the over 100,000 refugees from Artsakh, even though he knew that after the 2020 war Artsakh Armenians would eventually flee to Armenia.

To make matters worse, knowing that in future elections Artsakh Armenians will not vote for his political party, Pashinyan declared that they are not citizens of Armenia. These people for decades have had passports of the Republic of Armenia which were recognized not only by Armenia but also by foreign countries when they travelled overseas. Regrettably, thousands of Artsakh Armenians have since left Armenia for Russia to find shelter and work to be able to feed their families.

Furthermore, Pashinyan refuses to meet with any Artsakh official and opposes Artsakh Armenians holding protests in Yerevan to complain about their dire conditions in Armenia.

Here is the latest example of Pashinyan’s anti-Artsakh actions. Last week, the President of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan gave an interview to the French Le Figaro newspaper in which he said that the Republic of Artsakh continues to exist despite its occupation by Azerbaijan. He also stated that there is an Artsakh government-in-exile in Yerevan where his offices are located.

Shahramanyan’s words angered Pashinyan who immediately lashed back and warned that legal action will be taken against all those who talk about an Artsakh government-in-exile. Without any evidence, Pashinyan accused the Artsakh leaders of threatening Armenia’s national security. Not understanding the meaning of the term ‘government-in-exile,’ Pashinyan said that there is only one government in Armenia and there cannot be a second government, even though nobody was talking about creating a second government. If Pashinyan had any knowledgeable advisers, they would have informed him that there are in many countries dozens of ‘governments-in-exile’ which are universally accepted under international law.

In reality, the only person in Armenia who is threatening the security of Armenia is Pashinyan himself. Not only he has not defended the rights of Artsakh Armenians who are citizens of Armenia, but has also allowed Azerbaijan’s military to cross Armenia’s borders in 2021 and 2022. In addition, when Pres. Aliyev demanded that Armenia hand over to Azerbaijan four Armenian villages, Pashinyan warned their inhabitants that otherwise Azerbaijan will start a new war.

In his harsh reply to Shahramanyan, Pashinyan also threatened to take appropriate measures so that “foreign forces do not use certain [Artsakh] circles as a threat to the security of Armenia.” It is regrettable that Pashinyan is falsely accusing Artsakh Armenians of being manipulated by foreigners.

Pashinyan’s real problem is not Artsakh’s government-in-exile, but the fact that Artsakh Armenians are taking steps to keep the memory of Artsakh alive, which is highly embarrassing for him, since he is the one who gave it away. We have lost Artsakh to the enemy, but we should not erase it from our memory. We have an obligation not only to remember Artsakh, but transmit the dream of returning to Artsakh to the next generation. This is critical because if future generations do not know that Artsakh is an Armenian land, when the opportunity presents itself for its liberation, they will not take advantage of it, thus losing Artsakh forever, not because of what the enemy has done, but because of our own inaction.

In the meantime, we can only regret that Armenia’s Prime Minister, wittingly or unwittingly, is doing Pres. Aliyev’s bidding by trying to suppress even the memory and dream of Artsakh. Furthermore, it will be shameful if Pashinyan, acting on his threats, were to order the arrest of Artsakh leaders in Armenia, thus joining Baku in holding Artsakh leaders as captives.

With each passing day, Pashinyan is intensifying his anti-Armenian actions. How long will Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora remain silent in the face of such self-defeating actions? When will Armenians wake up from their slumber, say ‘enough is enough’ and find a new competent leader to lead the nation out of this quagmire? Contrary to Pashinyan’s contention, Artsakh is not a closed issue. Armenians should not continue to sit with their arms folded and watch Armenia gradually disappear because of the misdeeds of one man!

Finally, it would be shameful if Shahramanyan and other Artsakh officials were to be forced by Pashinyan to leave Armenia and relocate their government-in-exile to a foreign country.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has boasted for five years about his political party’s fair conduct in elections, blaming the former leaders of carrying out fraudulent elections. As the proverb says, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Pashinyan has used the considerable resources of his government to gain an unfair advantage over his political opponents during local and parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, some of the opposition candidates, following their election to a public office, are removed after being arrested, tried and jailed by pro-Pashinyan judges.

A recent example of fraud carried out by Pashinyan’s political party is the September 17, 2023 elections for the City Council of Yerevan. After ousting his own party member Hayk Marutyan from the position of mayor for daring to criticize the ruling party, Pashinyan planned to replace him with former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

Pashinyan’s backers resorted to a typical fundraising trick to ensure that Avinyan, who had little public support, becomes the Mayor of Yerevan. To accomplish their objective, they raised over one million dollars in campaign funds from mysterious individuals under fake names, an investigation revealed.

Infocom.am journalists contacted many of the names on the donors’ list and found out that some of them were fake.

The scandal starts with a Pashinyan supporter borrowing the ID card of a friend to donate using her name 2.5 million dram ($6,200), the maximum amount allowed by law, to Pashinyan’s political party, Civil Contract. This lady’s ID card was used to hide the real donor’s name. Unbeknownst to her, she was listed as a large donor to Pashinyan’s party. The fraudulent transaction took place on July 31, 2023, hours before a fundraising event held later that evening during which Pashinyan’s party claimed that 987 donors had raised over one million dollars (506 million dram), for the City Council race.

When asked by the media, Pashinyan’s political party refused to make the donors’ names public. Only after the Freedom of Information Center filed a lawsuit, the party disclosed the list of donors with fake names on January 12, 2024. The list included 996 names who had donated nearly $1.3 million (509 million dram) to the campaign.

When the lady, who was reported as donating 2.5 million dram, saw her name on the donors’ list, she was very upset. Infocom.am contacted other names on the donors’ list. Many of them were surprised that their names were used as donors to a political campaign. 87% of the donors were listed as donating over a million dram each, 70% of whom (140 individuals) were listed as donating the maximum amount of 2.5 million dram. Among the large donors were 88 candidates for City Council from the ruling Civil Contract party.

Infocom.am disclosed that the largest donors were the owners of major corporations, their executives and employees. Eight of the large donors worked for a single prominent company. It was confirmed that its employees had not donated from their personal funds, but the business owners had paid in their names. Several other big businessmen were listed as donating the maximum amount. Among the donors on the list were the names of employees of the City Council of Yerevan.

Infocom.am, after contacting the donors on the list provided by the Civil Contract party, concluded that some of the names on the donors’ list are “at least suspicious. The investigation showed that through organized mechanisms, funds of unknown origin were directed to the Civil Contract party’s fundraising, sometimes under the names of citizens who were generally unaware of the process.” In addition, since the law does not allow fundraising donations in cash, Infocom.am asked Avinyan’s campaign officials how the donations were made during the fundraising event. They answered that employees of ‘Hayeconobank’, who were present, transferred the cash to the account of the party. Among the shareholders of Hayeconobank is the ruling party parliament member and well-known oligarch Khachatur Sukiasyan, known as Grzo.

Infocom.am told the Deputy Head of the Civil Contract party Vahagn Aleksanyan that the donors it contacted said that they have made no such donations. Aleksanyan asked for the names of these individuals in order to verify them. When told that Infocom.am cannot disclose their names, Aleksanyan replied that perhaps they did not identify the correct individuals.

According to the law, the government can inspect the fundraising of a campaign only eight months after the election. The law states that by May 31 of the year following an election, political parties have to present their financial reports to the Anti-Corruption Committee.

When Infocom.am asked the former President of the Central Election Committee Vahagn Hovakimyan, a former Parliament member from the Civil Contract party, about its refusal to disclose the list of donors, Hovakimyan replied: “You are treating the political forces as potential criminals.”

This is a clear illustration of the fraud committed by Pashinyan’s party during the elections for the City Council of Yerevan. Nevertheless, the election was not as successful as expected for the ruling party. Avinyan was elected mayor only after the opposition parties, which had more City Council members than the ruling party, had failed to combine their votes to elect their own candidate for mayor.

This is the sad picture of the so-called democracy in Armenia. I seriously doubt that the Anti-Corruption Committee will take any legal action against Pashinyan’s political party for violating election laws.

This week’s commentary is a lesson for all those who naively believe what they hear or read and then pass on unsubstantiated stories to others. By doing so, they are actually helping to spread fake news. When someone gives you a piece of ‘news’, you should always ask, ‘what is your source’? When the answer is: ‘I heard it from someone else,’ immediately dismiss what was said to you. It is critical to verify what you are told in order not to disseminate baseless rumors to others.

Those of us who are in the news business have a bigger responsibility to be vigilant because if we do not double-check what is being reported to us, then we become guilty of spreading fake news to thousands of readers or viewers.

Here is an example of a news item we just heard about. A 57-year-old entertainment producer, Armen Grigoryan, who had died in Armenia, was found guilty by a judge in Armenia last week, a year and five months after his death. Not having heard that a dead man can be tried and convicted, I wondered if such a thing really happened.

Since I have had long years of experience hearing all sorts of baseless reports, I immediately contacted the late defendant’s lawyer in Armenia, Ruben Melikian, who was kind enough to explain the circumstances of this strange story.

Armen Grigoryan, during a street protest against the authorities in Armenia in May 2022, shortly before the parliamentary elections, told a reporter that he stood by his earlier statement of April 2021 that half of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s supporters in certain parts of the country have Turkish blood. Naturally, this was a disparaging remark, but if a country is truly democratic, citizens have the right to use unpleasant, even offensive words. Nevertheless, Grigoryan had not said anything threatening, which would have been against the law.

In May 2022, Grigoryan, a vocal critic of the regime, was arrested and jailed for the statement he had made a year before his arrest. He was charged with “inciting ethnic hostility.” Those accused of such a charge in the past, had made offensive or degrading comments about other ethnic groups living in Armenia. However, no Armenian had been charged before with incitement after making such remarks about fellow Armenians. For example, Pashinyan supporters, who had made insulting comments against Artsakh Armenian refugees, have not been charged with incitement.

On July 15, 2022, two months after his arrest, Grigoryan was brought to court from jail to stand trial. Regrettably, in the midst of the trial, he collapsed and died in the courtroom from a brain aneurism or stroke.

In Armenia, when a defendant dies, his trial is discontinued. However, in this case, according to Armenian law, the defendant’s family has the right to ask that the trial be continued until a verdict is reached. Grigoryan’s lawyer explained that his family wanted to see that he is exonerated, even though, due to the presumption of innocence (innocent until proven guilty), he was merely charged, but not convicted prior to his death. The family insisted that Grigoryan’s name be cleared since they believe that he should have never been arrested, charged and jailed.

The attorney told me that during the trial, after Gregorian’s death, a government witness testified in court that he had not written the testimony that was submitted in his name to the court. This witness said that a government investigator had written the testimony and had told him to sign it.

Also, a government expert, who testified in court, admitted that Grigoryan’s words could not be considered an incitement to inter-ethnic hostility, which means targeting members of another ethnic group. Grigoryan had only used offensive words about his fellow Armenians, members of his own ethnic group.

Nevertheless, last week, a year and five months after Grigoryan’s death, the judge declared him guilty of the charge filed against him. His lawyer told me that after the verdict is received in writing, the family has one month to file an appeal, which they intend to do. If they lose in the court of appeal, they will then appeal to the Court of Cassation which is a Court that hears appeals against decisions of courts of appeal. If they fail there too, they will then go to the European Court of Human Rights.

Having investigated the circumstances of a court in Armenia holding a trial and finding a dead man guilty, I wanted to know if such trials had also taken place in other countries. Surprisingly, I found several cases in ancient and recent history when other countries held posthumous trials of defendants and found them guilty after their death.