Hayk Konjorian, the parliamentary leader of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, came under media scrutiny earlier this month after the investigative publication Hetq.am reported that he purchased an expensive house at a massive discount.
The price paid by Konjorian was set just below a legal ceiling set for a long-running government scheme that has exempted home buyers from income tax for the duration of their mortgage repayments. He thus qualified for the tax rebate.
Konjorian denied receiving any discounts and lambasted the publication after the release of its article. That did not stop independent media from continuing to question the acquisition. Other senior Armenian officials have also bought expensive homes at below-average prices in recent years, fueling media speculation about their abuse of power or other corrupt practices.
Knar Manukian and Sona Grigorian of the Yerevan daily Zhoghovurd separately approached Konjorian in the parliament building on December 16 for further comment on the Hetq.am report. The lawmaker refused to answer their questions.
He went on to complain to the National Assembly staff that Manukian and Grigorian talked to him in an “unauthorized area” of the building. The chief of the staff, Davit Arakelian, promptly revoked their press credentials as a result.
Hayk Konjorian speaks in the parliament, June 21, 2022.
Both female reporters insisted on Wednesday that they did not break any rules set for the parliamentary press corps. They said that security guards deployed inside the building let them enter a corridor lined by the offices of Konjorian and other deputies. Arakelian countered that the guards did not allow them to interview anyone there.
Manukian was already stripped of her accreditation two years ago after arguing with another senior deputy from Pashinian’s party who accused her newspaper of corruption. A Yerevan court restored her access to the National Assembly last year. The journalist said she will also challenge the latest ban in court.
“If they think that by restricting our professional activities they will prevent us from seeing Konjorian, [parliament speaker] Alen Simonian or members of his clan and asking them tough questions about their activities, they are badly mistaken,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Never before have our movements inside the parliament been restricted so much,” said Grigorian, who has covered Armenia’s current and former parliaments for 14 years.
Pashinian’s party imposed most of those restrictions in 2021, drawing strong condemnation from Armenian media groups. A year later, it amended an Armenian law on mass media to allow the parliament, the prime minister’s office and other government agencies to swiftly revoke journalists’ accreditations typically valid for one year.
