From 1 to 10 November, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the Vice-president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Alen Simonyan’s personality and activities.
35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 200 articles were declared, 41 of which were negative, 18 were positive and 141 were neutral.
RA NA Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan is being harshly criticized. He has been criticized by various socio-political figures. In particular, member of the Public Council, former MP Arshak Sadoyan criticized Mr. Simonyan after his remark that he does not understand the meaning of the PC activity. Sadoyan noted: “Whether it is Alen Simonyan or someone else, whoever dares to ask the PC to inform what it has practically done, perhaps that very person does not understand the sense of the PC’s work. Instead, Alen Simonyan should have asked about the pieces of advice the PC gave to the government, the parliament and the ministries, which were not taken into account by them.”
Gagik Manasyan also criticized Alen Simonyan’s statement. Another member of the PC Artsrun Pepanyan noted: “Alen Simonyan may apply to the staff of the council, and he would be given about 10 pages of issues and problems that people have addressed to the body, and information about the discussions that have been held on those issues.”
Dzonik Margaryan has been appointed as the head of Kentron district. Before that, Dzonik Margaryan held the position of deputy head of the district. It is noted that the new head is Alen Simonyan’s father-in-law.
Alen Simonyan has also been criticized because of his another statement. He noted that Serzh Sargsyan is afraid. It was followed by Armen Ashotyan’s critical remark on Alen Simonyan, in which he hinted that Alen Simonyan should remember their conversations on social network.
In one of the analytical publications, Alen Simonyan was compared to Eduard Sharmazanov. It is noted that Sharmazanov also used to speak about this or that person based on some instructions. The publication also states that Sharmazanov differs; the latter, unlike Simonyan, never allowed him to utter inappropriate expressions related to the former presidents.
