From May 10 to 20, 2020, the “Media Advocate” Initiative followed online media reports on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s personality and activities. 5 news agencies were monitored: 1in.am, news.am, armtimes.com, aravot.am and tert.am.
According to the monitoring, 699 articles were published on 5 selected websites regarding Nikol Pashinyan. 131 articles of which are negative, 21 are positive and 547 are neutral.
Both negative and positive articles were published on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, but the majority of them are negative.
According to political scientist Narek Samsonyan, Nikol Pashinyan has proven that they represent the worst government.
Armen Ashotyan, referring to one of Nikol Pashinyan’s Facebook lives, noted, “Pashinyan is in a panic, the reason for that is the dissatisfaction of hundreds of thousands of citizens.”
According to Belarusian analyst Yuri Drakokhrust, the Russian president institutionally refused to resolve the gas price issue with Armenia: “Nevertheless, he did not refuse to bargain. He did not refuse to let Pashinyan or other officials go to Moscow, to “Gazprom”, in order to convince that it is difficult for them, they should understand the situation, and that they may meet the interests of Russians in other issues. They are not against such a deal, and it does not mean that Armenia will pay for gas the price which is applicable for the world market. Yes, there will be some concessions. It will happen every year.”
From 250 articles published in news.am, 67 were negative, 6 were positive and 177 were neutral.
The news agency referred to Narek Samsonyan and Armen Ashotyan’s remarks.
Referring to coronavirus issue, Arthur Ghazinyan, the founder of the “One Armenia” party, noted: “Now I want to state that Nikol Pashinyan, Tigran Avinyan and Arsen Torosyan are the ones responsible for all the health and economic consequences caused by coronavirus epidemic.” These three are responsible for every single death case.
According to Arpine Hovhannisyan, Nikol Pashinyan has public, political and personal motives of prolonging the state of emergency.
Former Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan says that Nikol Pashinyan has failed the fight against coronavirus, adding that the political majority has the least painful chance to dismiss Nikol. No one but them. Today you are the responsible for the fate of the country. It is in your hands whether Armenia will exist tomorrow or not. And in order to make it happen, Nikol must be dismissed as soon as possible.
Arthur Davtyan, a member of the “My Step” fraction of the National Assembly, does not think that the speech of the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which followed the fight in the National Assembly, could have encouraged violence. According to him, the whole speech deserved applause.
From 147 articles published in armtimes.com, 3 were negative, 5 were positive and 139 were neutral.
Touching upon the sphere of justice, Arman Babajanyan noted that we should have heard from Nikol Pashinyan and the Minister of Justice of the political majority about developing a strategy of large-scale reforms in the judicial system, but instead we heard how the Minister of Justice reported to the Prime Minister that he had completely failed implementing the assignment.
Smbat Gogyan, the chairman of the SSC (Supreme Certifying Committee), has resigned, and in his Facebook post he thanked the Prime Minister for entrusting him with the sphere.
The Russian media spread the news that Nikol Pashinyan’s grandfather had fought in the USSR army and denied the news that the Prime Minister’s grandfather had supported Nazi Germany.
From 124 articles published in aravot.am, 35 were negative, 3 were positive and 86 were neutral.
The news outlet addressed Mikayel Minasyan and Armen Ashotyan’s remarks.
Arthur Danielyan, head of the Adekvad Congregation, referring to the issue of smuggled cigarettes seized in Russia and the press reports that Nikol Pashinyan’s wife’s brother Hrachya Hakobyan is connected with it, said that he does not trust Nikol Pashinyan’s counter-arguments on that issue. How can I believe his words? I do not trust him for four years now, because I know that man very well. I haven’t heard a counter-argument uttered by Pashinyan,what I see is another manipulative blackmail speech. He continues to insist that if they leave, the formers will come back. This is all he can say. There has been smuggling, and some Armenian circles have been a part of it.”
From 100 articles published in 1in.am, 3 were negative, 6 were positive and 91 were neutral.
The news agency covers the remark of Zhoghovurd daily, according to which it was informed that the report on the execution of the 2019 state budget has been finally summed up and sent to the National Assembly. According to it, real GDP growth in the Republic of Armenia in 2019 was recorded at 7.6%, which is 2.7% higher than the level planned for 2019 by the state budget.
The news outlet also posted an article about Nikol Pashinyan’s grandfather published by Russian news agencies.
The news outlet also published an article by Past daily, according to which a source close to Vahagn Siseryan, the head of Tigran Avinyan’s office, confirmed the information that he will not return to work.
However, the newspaper’s interlocutor also noted that the reason is not that they sealed the door of his office, and the public will be informed about the real reasons in the near future.
The newspaper adds that no matter what happens, the fact is that Nikol Pashinyan is not only unable to control the situation over coronavirus, but also his own team, which is rapidly starting to crack.
From 78 articles published in tert.am, 23 were negative, 1 was positive and 54 were neutral.
Political scientist Armen Minasyan noted. “I also agree with Minasyan’s analysis that Nikol Pashinyan’s government should be overthrown, the Civil Contract as a party and My Step as a fraction should become collegial bodies and people gathered there should realize that they have something to do in order to help country overcome the crisis and that at least they have a responsibility to contribute to it. This call was in fact a call for sobriety, so that people stop for a moment and realize their responsibility.”
Touching upon the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia, the former deputy of the RA National Assembly, Karen Bekaryan noted that Nikol Pashinyan does not assume responsibility in the process of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
