The parliament’s pro-government majority voted to oust Taguhi Tovmasian on July 11 on the grounds that she did not attend most meetings of the parliament’s leadership. It also claimed that Tovmasian did not stop “hate speech” when her committee discussed on April 4 candidacies for the then vacant post of Armenia’s human rights ombudsman.
Edgar Ghazarian, the opposition candidate for the post, enraged pro-government deputies with his claim that the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power was in fact a “Turkish-Azerbaijani revolution.” They shouted abuse and threats at Ghazarian during the meeting chaired by Tovmasian.
Tovmasian, who is affiliated with the opposition Pativ Unem bloc, maintains that that she did nothing wrong on April 4. She has also argued that the parliamentary statutes did not require her to attend meetings of the National Assembly’s Council consisting of speaker Alen Simonian, his deputies as well as the committee chairpersons.
Tovmasian told reporters on Monday that she wants the court to invalidate her ouster condemned by Pativ Unem and the other parliamentary opposition force, the Hayastan alliance. She said it was “illegal” also because the parliament debated it in her absence. Tovmasian said she had notified the parliament in advance that she cannot attend the session because of being on sick leave.
“They can’t silence me by removing me from the post of the committee chairperson,” added the former journalist and newspaper editor.
Prior to her dismissal, Tovmasian was the last remaining opposition head of a parliament committee. Hayastan’s Ishkhan Saghatelian and Vahe Hakobian were ousted as deputy speaker and chairman of the parliament committee on economic affairs respectively in July 2022 after weeks of anti-government protests organized by Hayastan and Pativ Unem. Another Hayastan deputy, Armen Gevorgian, immediately resigned as chairman of a committee on “Eurasian integration” in protest.