There are no positive articles on Ararat Mirzoyan

From 11 to 20 August, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the President of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan’s personality and activities. 35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.

In the specified period, 96 articles were declared, 42 of which were negative and 54 were neutral.

No positive articles have been published in the press on the NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan. As far as the criticisms raised by the public and media are concerned, they refer to various issues.

Recently Ararat Mirzoyan published a Facebook post, noting that Chinari will no longer be under fire, and that the security of the gas pipeline entering Armenia is also ensured from now on. The post was criticized by military experts and locals who are very well aware of the territory. They urged the NA Speaker not to make statements that may threaten border security. Afterwards, Ararat Mirzoyan re-edited his post.

Opinions emerged in the media, according to which the above-mentioned post of the NA Speaker had an intention to serve the citizens a sweet lie. According to media reports, these military actions actually took place 7 months ago, but today they are being voiced in order to neutralize the Amulsar problem in the flow of information․

The rug washing event on Vardavar Day which cost about 5 million drams has also been criticized. Actually, it turned out that one of the organizations that received the money for the event had been registered in the State Register only 5 days before the event. MP Hripsime Grigoryan was asked to clarify her relation with the event organizer Ani Julhakyan. The MP said she had known Ani from previous events and had not denied that her husband had contributed to entrusting Ani Julhakyan with organizing the Vardavar event. It was also mentioned that Hripsime Grigoryan’s husband, David Karapetyan, is an adviser to NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan.

Discussions are ongoing on the structural changes of the NA Staff. According to media reports, there is no final document on the new structure of the National Assembly, it turns out that the old structure no longer exists, but the new one has not been created yet. Many employees who are fired threaten to file a lawsuit because they consider their contracts have been groundlessly dissolved.

There are quite a number of problematic issues, that is the NA Speaker’s team obviously has many things to do.