Police in Armenia raided the offices of local news site Yerevan.Today on Monday morning, according to local media. The search, which was still ongoing Monday afternoon, was related to recordings of phone conversations between two top security chiefs leaked online last week.
The wiretapped conversations between Artur Vanetsyan, Director of the National Security Service (NSS), and Sasun Khachatryan, Head of the Special Investigative Service (SIS) suggested Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s direct involvement in the decision to arrest former Deputy Defence Minister Yuri Khachaturov.
In the recordings, the SIS head also boasts of pressuring a judge to detain former president Robert Kocharyan. Both Kocharyan and Khachaturov are being prosecuted in the case of fatal dispersal of post-election opposition rallies in March 2008 that left ten people dead.
At 11:00, Yerevan.Todayannounced via their Facebook page that their offices were being searched and that ‘journalists are awaiting an explanation’. Yerevan.Today’s website went offline briefly on Monday afternoon, before returning.
‘An anti-PR campaign’
According to NewsArmenia.am, Armenia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that they were conducting the raid over the leaked recordings, but refused to disclose further details. The Committee later claimed they were searching five other addresses to reveal the origin of the leak, and insisted the search was not connected to ‘journalistic activities’.
On 12 September, Yerevan.Todaydenied rumours they had posted the recording online two days prior it making headlines in Armenia. The news site insisted the allegations had turned into a ‘broad anti-PR campaign against the newspaper’ and were based on ‘erroneous’ Google search results. They said they knew about the leaked recording and published it at the time online at the same time it became known to others — at around 15:00 on 11 September.
Satik Seyranyan, head of the Armenian Union of Journalists, told the media that he had failed to reach the site’s editor-in-chief, Sevak Hakobyan, as the authorities were preventing him from communicating with others. Local media reported that Hakobyan’s house was also being searched.
Footage from outside the offices of Yerevan.Today on Monday (Azatutyun)
Later, Hakobyan confirmed to Tert.am that the authorities had confiscated his computer and hard drives from several computers from the office. He also denied rumours that Yerevan.Today was connected with former President Robert Kocharyan.
Kocharyan recently announced he was returning to Armenian politics, answering ‘consider me back’ when asked about it in an interview with Armenian TV station Yerkir Media.
The Public Defender’s Office has said they have requested clarification from the Investigative Committee over the search.
Armenia has extended the protection status for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, without which they would not be able to leave the country.
On Thursday, the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the status of protection granted to Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians was extended until 31 December 2025, with the possibility of further extension.
This status was given to over 100,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who did not apply for Armenian citizenship following the mass displacement in 2023.
Armenia’s opposition has held a hearing in defence of the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence in Armenia’s constitution, with opposition figures insulting supporters and members of the ruling party.
The opposition Armenia Alliance faction held the hearing on Thursday to discuss the draft statement regarding the inviolable relevance of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.
The hearing took place against the backdrop of continued statements from Azerbaijan that the inclusion of the d
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan has slammed the Deputy Chair of the Armenian Parliament’s Defence Committee, Armen Khachatryan, for attempting to downplay the responsibility of the authorities in the non-combat deaths of soldiers.
‘In our civilian life, we have many suicides, we have many accidents. I don’t know why you don’t talk about it, the reasons for those suicides’, Khachatryan said on Tuesday, in response to a question regarding the recent death of a soldier outside of comba
Police in Armenia raided the offices of local news site Yerevan.Today on Monday morning, according to local media. The search, which was still ongoing Monday afternoon, was related to recordings of phone conversations between two top security chiefs leaked online last week.
