YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Pro-government and opposition lawmakers brawled in Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday after the main opposition Hayastan alliance announced that it has drafted legislation toughening punishment for anyone who denies or questions the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The clash broke out shortly after parliament speaker Alen Simonyan bitterly argued with Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasyan and Garnik Danielyan while chairing a session of the National Assembly.
“Either turn on my microphone so we can talk or stop your comments,” said Minasyan.
“Sit down, calm down,” Simonyan shot back.
The bitter exchange followed a scathing attack against the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which is part of Hayastan, launched by another senior lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, Hayk Konjoryan. Both Minasyan and Danielyan are members of the ARF.
Six other deputies representing Civil Contract and ARF came to blows moments later. Other lawmakers then intervened to stop the brawl that forced Simonyan to interrupt the parliament session.
Each side blamed the other for the violence. Hayastan lawmakers said that their pro-government colleagues provoked it in response to the announcement of their bill against genocide denial.
Simonyan denied that, saying that he simply tried to stop the ARF lawmakers arguing with each other. The speaker also argued that Armenia criminalized genocide denial years ago.
Article 136 of the Armenian Criminal Code envisages heavy fines and up to five years’ imprisonment for anyone who denies or justifies a genocide “with the aim of inciting hatred, discrimination or violence against a person or group of persons.” The opposition bill would amend this clause to make clear that any genocide denial is a criminal offense regardless of its purpose. It also calls for a longer prison sentence.
“We demand that the denial and belittling of the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE be considered a criminal act in itself, regardless of whether it is accompanied by hatred or not,” another ARF lawmaker, Kristine Vartanyan, wrote on Facebook later in the day.
Vartanyan said that the proposed amendment would criminalize the kind of statements on the Armenian genocide which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made earlier this year.
Pashinyan essentially questioned the genocide during a visit to Switzerland on January 24. He said Armenians should “understand what happened” in 1915 and what prompted the subsequent campaign for international recognition of the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. He seemed to imply that foreign powers, notably the Soviet Union, were behind that campaign.
Armenian historians, opposition figures and retired diplomats expressed outrage at the remarks, saying that Pashinyan cast doubt on the fact of the genocide officially recognized by over three dozen countries, including the United States. Some of them claimed that this is part of his efforts to cozy up to Turkey, which continues to deny a deliberate government effort to exterminate the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.
