From 11 to 20 October, 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, 153 articles were declared, 36 of which were negative, 2 were positive and 115 were neutral.
Minister Arayik Harutyunyan continues to be criticized, and negative articles still prevail in number. The minister recently introduced a new law which has been strongly criticized. Doctor of Philology, Professor Henrik Edoyan disagrees with the part of the amendment, according to which the Armenian language, literature and history should be excluded from the list of subjects taught in higher educational institutions. Mikayel Hayrapetyan, a candidate of philological sciences, the leader of the Conservative Party, thinks that the initiative of the Ministry is nothing but a shame.
According to another publication: “We finally understood what is Arayik Harutyunyan’s purpose: he is a person, who received his position in the Armenian government due to Soros quota. Is there an easier way to make an Armenian forget his/her roots than to consider his language, culture and history not important and make forget them? In case that the head of this government in America speaks about preservation of the Armenian identity, the type of Armenian, the identity of the Armenian person. Mr. Prime Minister, in what kind of corruption deal is your minister engaged in? Who has ordered him to do this, if it is clear that the RA citizen is not the one ordered such a thing? ”
Edik Andreasyan, referring to Arayik Harutyunyan, notes that the minister fails to manage his spheres and is consistently undertaking wrong steps. Andreasyan, in particular, wrote: “There is not much one needs to dismiss the ESCS minister of Armenia. If he has not served in the army, he cannot read Tumanyan’s quatrains, he does not tolerate priests’ attendance at school, secretly meets representatives of different sexual orientation, has a unique opinion on drugs, is openly a Soros supporter, fights for propagation of Satanists, undertakes steps to exclude the Armenian language and the history of the Armenian people from the list of compulsory subjects, even if one does not write anything about him, it’s almost the same as he is dismissed.”
ASUE students continue their protest, they believe that the minister lied when he said that a plagiarist cannot become a rector. According to them, Galoyan copied her work from websites which suggest course papers to students which is unacceptable and insist that no one will be able to silence them. The students’ statement has it: “You will not be able to hide the truth, you have to resign, Mr. Minister.”
Arayik Harutyunyan continues to be perceived as Minister of Education and Science, though there are other spheres under his control as well; the lack of publications covering those spheres prove it.
