Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party has once again demonstrated its contempt for democratic accountability by refusing to support an ethics inquiry into one of its own senior lawmakers who verbally assaulted a journalist last month.
Andranik Kocharyan, the controversial chair of the National Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee, lashed out at Tribune.am correspondent Hripsime Jebejyan on March 20, responding to her questions with the crude remark: “Clean your lips.” His outburst came during a routine press interaction in parliament and was widely condemned as both sexist and abusive.
The backlash was swift. Over 160 accredited journalists signed a petition demanding the creation of an independent parliamentary ethics commission with the power to investigate Kocharyan and even recommend his expulsion from parliament via the Constitutional Court.
Armenia’s two parliamentary opposition factions quickly backed the demand, submitting a motion drafted with the help of legal experts from the legislature. But the effort was dead on arrival—the Civil Contract majority closed ranks behind Kocharyan, blocking the formation of the commission in a closed-door vote late Tuesday night.
Instead, Civil Contract leaders proposed a watered-down alternative: a new standing committee on ethics that would only look into future misconduct. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan made it clear that the Kocharyan incident would be excluded, calling any retroactive probe off the table.
This maneuver amounts to little more than damage control, critics say—a symbolic gesture designed to preserve appearances while shielding their own from consequences.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the opposition had not issued an official response, though independent MP Taguhi Tovmasyan warned earlier that Civil Contract’s obstruction would send a clear message: Kocharyan’s “unacceptable, insolent behavior” is not just tolerated—it’s protected.
Kocharyan, for his part, remains defiant and unapologetic. “I said nothing offensive,” he insisted, despite a long track record of disrespectful and hostile exchanges with the press.
His case is not isolated. Just days after the March 30 local elections in Gyumri, another Civil Contract deputy, Vilen Gabrielyan, was forced to resign after appearing intoxicated and cursing at a journalist. Even then, Gabrielyan expressed no remorse for his behavior.
These incidents highlight a deeper rot in the ruling party’s approach to public accountability and press freedom. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan—a former journalist himself—Civil Contract seems increasingly unwilling to subject its members to scrutiny, much less discipline.
The message is clear: in Pashinyan’s Armenia, power protects its own, and the press is expected to stay in its place.
