Pashinian signaled such a crackdown on Wednesday after Hovik Aghazarian turned down his resignation “request,” unlike another pro-government lawmaker and six senior government, law-enforcement and judicial officials who stepped down on November 18. “Political, moral, and other levers” will be used to strip Aghazarian of his parliament seat, he said, sparking fresh opposition accusations of abuse of power.
Under Armenian law, a parliament deputy automatically loses their seat only if they are tried and convicted by court. Aghazarian insisted that he is undaunted by such a prospect.
“The prime minister cannot use any means to make me resign,” he told reporters. “He can use all means to make me lose my mandate. Those are different things.”
“If repression against me strengthens the security and stability of the state and leads to the kind of peace treaty [with Azerbaijan] that I want, then I’m ready to be that victim,” he said.
Aghazarian was expelled from Pashinian’s party on Tuesday night. The premier and other senior party figures accused the 64-year-old of leaking “confidential information of state and partisan importance” to media and violating “public moral norms.”
It emerged on Wednesday that they gained access to Aghazarian’s private communication through a law-enforcement agency that controversially confiscated his mobile phone late last month. The outspoken lawmaker was repeatedly interrogated by the agency, the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), after refusing to leave the National Assembly.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets parliament deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party, October 25, 2024.
Pashinian and his political allies did not publicize any classified or sensitive information allegedly leaked by Aghazarian. One of them, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, claimed that the leaks scuttled unspecified Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings reached during peace talks.
Simonian also said, “How can you decline a request of Armenia’s elected leader and your [political] team’s leader?”
Aghazarian denied giving journalists any information undermining Armenia’s national security and challenged his erstwhile teammates to release evidence to the contrary. As of Thursday evening, the Office of the Prosecutor-General still did not clarify whether a criminal case has been opened in connection with the allegations made against the embattled parliamentarian.
Pashinian insisted that he did not break any laws by accessing personal data stored in Aghazarian’s phone. His political foes claimed the opposite, saying that he once again trampled on the country’s constitution and laws.
One opposition figure, Avetik Chalabian, petitioned prosecutors to launch criminal proceedings against Pashinian. He also challenged the legality of the phone’s confiscation, arguing that Aghazarian has not yet been charged with any crimes.
Chalabian claimed that Pashinian is seeking tough punishment for Aghazarian in an effort to deter other loyalists from revolting against him.
“After all, people [in the ruling party] have started getting tired of this atmosphere of fear and the fact that a single person decides for everyone in the country,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.