Andranik Kocharian, the controversial chairman of the parliament committee on defense and security, raged at Hripsime Jebejian of the Tribune.am news service when she approached him together with other parliamentary correspondents on March 20. Kocharian told Jebejian to “clean your lips” when she demanded an explanation for his hostility.
Journalists accredited in the National Assembly as well as Armenia’s leading media associations expressed outrage at Kocharian’s behavior. Jebejian and other parliamentary correspondents also began collecting signatures in support of their calls for a parliamentary ethics inquiry into the lawmaker notorious for his frequent arguments with the press corps.
Jebejian said that as many as 161 of her colleagues signed the petition by Wednesday morning. She handed it to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian when he arrived for the Armenian government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament.
“I hope that the prime minister will give in to the appeal from so many journalists,” she said.
As the session began shortly afterwards Jebejian and other reporters following it from the parliament’s press gallery held up a poster condemning Kocharian. Uniformed security guards swiftly entered the room to confiscate the poster and stop the protest.
“Journalists accredited in the National Assembly have no right to stage protests inside the National Assembly building,” one of the officers told the protesting journalists.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian also criticized them when he arrived at the scene moments later. Simonian claimed at the same time that he did not order the use of force.
Taguhi Tovmasian, an opposition parliamentarian and former journalist, accused him of lying. “The order was issued by the leadership of the National Assembly,” she said.
Tovmasian and other opposition lawmakers also reaffirmed their support for the inquiry into Kocharian. The parliamentary correspondents want the parliament to form an ad hoc ethics commission that would be empowered to not only investigate him but also ask the Constitutional Court to oust him from the parliament.
None of the deputies from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party has backed such an inquiry, even if at least two of them have criticized Kocharian. The latter has refused to apologize to Jebejian, insisting that he said “nothing offensive” to the reporter.