Editor-in-chief of Armenian opposition-aligned media investigated over 2024 editorial

Armine Ohanyan, the editor-in-chief of the opposition-aligned media Hraparak, ‘was summoned’ by Armenia’s Investigative Committee on Tuesday. According to Hraparak, Ohanyan was questioned for an editorial she had written in December 2024, ‘which, according to the Investigative Committee, contains public calls for a violent change of power’.

In its reporting on the summons, Hraparak claimed that ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has ‘decided to silence free media’.

Hraparak also referred to rumors that had circulated months ago, suggesting that ‘that on the eve of the elections, several editors of free media outlets would be targeted by law enforcement’.

According to these same rumors, Ohanyan was expected to be among them, as she ‘consistently criticizes the current authorities’.

Neither Hraparak nor Ohanyan has disclosed which editorial prompted the investigation, but noted that the criminal proceedings were initiated under the article on ‘public calls aimed at usurpation of power, violating territorial integrity, or violently overthrowing the constitutional order.’

Similar charges have been brought against other opposition figures, including Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan.

According to the investigative outlet Hetq, criminal proceedings began against Ohanyan around a year ago, but she only learned about them after she was summoned by the authorities. She has not yet been formally charged, and Hetq, citing its sources, claims the criminal proceedings are expected to be terminated.

‘Ohanyan’s piece was sent for forensic linguistic and forensic psychological examination. After about a year, the expert conclusion was received, and it was determined that it does not contain a call for violence’, Hetq reported.

In response to media inquiries, the Investigative Committee declined to comment.

‘Hraparak has become a bone stuck in their throat’, Ohanyan told Hetq, adding, ‘Now I even make a post on Facebook, and they get into a panic. They think that every letter and every word spoken is taking votes away from them’.

Speaking to RFE/RL, Ohanyan suggested that the Armenian authorities were attempting to intimidate and silence her, but she described their actions as ‘meaningless’.

Armenian media freedom organizations have yet to respond to the case against Ohanyan, while opposition figures suggest that the case reflects Pashinyan’s ‘authoritarian’ behavior. The allegations come as Pashinyan’s government has cited building democratic institutions as one of its main accomplishments.

Separate from the summoning of Ohanyan, Armenian authorities detained a Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian woman on Tuesday over a social media comment containing ‘a call for violence against Pashinyan’. Roman Yeritsyan, a Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian lawyer, reported the case on Facebook.

Armenian authorities have previously launched similar criminal proceedings for social media posts.

According to Yeritsyan, the woman was detained in front of her five children, some of them toddlers.

The woman was later released, opposition Armenia Alliance MP Gegham Manukyan wrote in a Facebook post. Manuykan added that the woman had been summoned for questioning on Wednesday.

‘Fears of a petty dictator…’, Manukyan added in reference to the two criminal proceedings.

Tigran Abrahamyan, another opposition MP from the I Have Honor faction, described law enforcement as ‘acting unlawfully’ and suggested their real target was Armenian society itself, ‘which the authorities are trying to intimidate at any cost by suppressing any manifestation of activity’.

‘An authoritarian country, by pressures stemming from that image, restrictions on freedom of speech, and immoral behavior’, Abrahamyan wrote.