From 21 to 30 June, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the Minister Arayik Harutyunyan’s personality and activities. 35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 161 articles were declared, 25 of which were negative, 1 were positive and 135 were neutral.
Minister Harutyunyan is one of the most discussed political figures. Over the past ten days, the negative articles on the minister have again surpassed the number of positive ones. An interesting situation arose in YSU. Vahagn Varagyan, Director of Student Affairs Center, says that they want to close the center and explains it with the desire to fire him. Varagyan wrote on his Facebook page: “If you solve a political problem, if you have obligations before George Soros Foundation, it will be honest to announce it publicly and not to challenge the University status.”
According to the news outlets, employees of the Ministry are complaining about the new “rules”. If previously they could verbally notify superiors about their absence, they now have to write an explanation: it should be written even when being late from work.
The supporters of the second president, in their turn, criticized Arayik Harutyunyan after his Facebook post on Robert Kocharyan’s personality. Confrontation begins between ARF and Arayik Harutyunyan as well. During a conversation with the media outlets, the Minister urged the ARF members not to invite him to a debate and added, otherwise ARF member Levon Mkrtchyan (Former Minister of Education and Science) will be disgraced.
Arayik Harutyunyan was not accused of sponsorship during this ten-day period. From above mentioned facts one may conclude that Arayik Harutyunyan shows political activity and actually goes beyond the borders of education and science and makes comments on the former political authorities.
