On May 19, Petros Ghazaryan’s guest on Public TV was the chairman of the Public Council Styopa Safaryan. The topic of discussion was the activity of the Public Council. Styopa Safaryan, referring to his remarks to Specialist on Azerbaijani studies Angela Elibegova, which were criticized by many public and political figures, including pro-government MPs, apologized to Elibegova and the public. “Yes, I acted improperly. I have written improper remarks on her appearance. I apologize to Ms. Elibegova and the public for making such kind of a remark.”
The chairman of the Public Council, who should not promote but prevent the hate speech, has also targeted TV companies. “Yesterday, a part of well-known TV companies, supporting Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, fully covered this incident. Meanwhile, none of them covered that the Public Council held a distant session, where many important issues were discussed. The Public Council has not worked like this during its 10 years of activity.” Petros Ghazaryan added. “Let me tell you the reason: being the chairman of the public council, you are not politically loyal. You are making notes about the four prime ministers who came to mediate to change Kocharyan’s arrest, and they, in their turn, are acting the same way.”
It should be reminded that Styopa Safaryan banned “News.am”, “Hayeli.am”, “168.am”, “Yerevan Today”, “7or.am”, “Livenews.am” news agencies, “5th channel” and “Yerkir Media”TV channels from entering their event. In fact, Styopa Safaryan himself did not cooperate with the media, and worsened the relationship with them and now he expects cooperation.
Petros Ghazaryan noted: “We used to tell Vazgen Manukyan that being the chairman of the public council he gave political assessments, now you are doing the same. When we follow your activity, there is an impression that you are fighting against former authorities. You are the chairman of the public council, but what you actually do; this fake said this, this fake said that. People say that Mr. Safaryan does not perceive his public position right. Someone said this on Facebook, they hacked your profile, then it was back, this is not the agenda of the chairman of the public council. Where is the chairman of the Public Council Styopa Safaryan?” To Petros Ghazaryan’s question that “You are being criticized, why don’t you make Mikael Minasyan’s kitchen lives the subject of the council’s discussion?”, Safaryan responded “I don’t want to”.
