The issue of Amulsar has become a major issue for Nikol Pashinyan’s government

From August 11 to 20, 2019, the “Media Advocate” Initiative followed online media reports on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s personality and activities. 4 news agencies were monitored: aravot.am, azatutyun.am, armtimes.com and lragir.am.

According to the monitoring, 306 articles were published on 4 selected websites regarding Nikol Pashinyan. 34 articles of which are negative, 23 are positive and 249 are neutral.

For the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, the issue of Amulsar has been the biggest issue during this ten-day period. Various public forces, which supported Nikol Pashinyan and the Civil Contract (CC) during the change of power, are now on the other side of the barricades and fight against the exploitation of the mine.

The Prime Minister had a conversation with citizens via Facebook live, but that did not seem to ease the situation. Articles appeared in the media, the main point of which was that Facebook live raised more questions than it actually answered.

The second major issue of our monitoring period continues to be the incident between Nikol Pashinyan and a woman from Gyumri; the latter expressed her dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister’s activities.

From 109 articles published in Aravot.am, 23 were negative, 10 were positive and 79 were neutral.

The main issue for this news outlet does not differ either: Amulsar issue again received some critical comments. The publications of this specified period also cover the incident with a woman from Gyumri, besides it, the issue of garbage disposal already has a negative impact on not only Mayor Hayk Marutyan’s but also Nikol Pashinyan’s rating.

From 108 articles published in Lragir.am, 8 were negative, 4 were positive and 96 were neutral.

Amulsar remains the most popular issue among the negative articles. The news agency also addressed the activists who were detained in front of the National Assembly. One of the activists wrote: “Today Nikol Pashinyan’s promise to “throw to the ground” came true. They literally throw me to the ground, and using force , they were trying to detain a girl.” Positive articles include Seyran Saroyan’s praise addressed to Nikol Pashinyan and Gyumri mayor’s statement that the number of tourists visiting city, have increased since Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Gyumri.

From 46 articles published in Azatutyun.am, 1 was negative, 5 were positive and 40 were neutral.

Publications according to which Azerbaijan continues to criticize Nikol Pashinyan’s statements done in Stepanakert were assessed as negative. Positive articles include praise addressed to Pashinyan who organized a  tour for tourists and opinions voiced at Seyran Saroyan’s press conference.

From 43 articles published in Armtimes.com, 2 were negative, 4 were positive, 37 were neutral.

Two negative articles on the news outlet are related to Amulsar. Positive articles include the above-mentioned statement by the mayor of Gyumri and the words of praise by Seyran Saroyan.

Thus, the issue of Amulsar has become a major issue for Nikol Pashinyan’s government, which has temporarily neglected the discussions over Istanbul Convention.