On February 21 at “Pakagits” Club, a joint press-conference of the Chief Editor
of “Pakagits” daily Agapi Haikazuni and the Editor of “Iravunk” newspaper (party
organ of “Constitutional Right” Union) Hovhannes Galajian was held. Both publications
skipped their regular issues: “Iravunk” – on February 20, “Pakagits” – on February
21.
The reason for suspension of issuance of “Iravunk” was the inter-party situation
in the “Constitutional Right” Union (CRU). The conflict between the Chairman
of the CRU Board, the RA NA Deputy Hrant Khachatrian and the Vice-Chairman,
the head of the Editorial Board of “Iravunk” Haik Babukhanian drew much public
attention due to the 17th conference of the party in September 2006, when Hrant
Khachatrian was elected to be the Honorable Chairman and Haik Babukhanian –
the Chairman of the Board of CRU. Hrant Khachatrian at first announced he was
giving up politics and then challenged the decisions of the conference in court.
The court of primary jurisdiction did not secure the suit, and the RA Court
of Appeals annulled the resolutions made at the conference on January 31, 2007.
On February 8 Hrant Khachatrian tried to return to the party office (also hosting
“Iravunk” newspaper) with representatives of the RA Service of Compulsory Execution
of Court Acts, but encountered resistance from former party colleagues. During
a repeated attempt on February 20 Hrant Khachatrian and the compulsory executors
met with no resistance: the office was empty. On the same day, February 20,
a number of “Iravunk” staff members, including Haik Babukhanian and Hovhannes
Galajian, disseminated a statement, claiming, in particular, that: “At the direct
order of oligarchic and criminal system, under the pretext of the court resolution
of allegedly disputable issues, related to “Iravunk” founder, the CRU party,
(…) the newspaper activities were actually disrupted.”
At the press-conference on February 21 Hovhannes Galajian announced, in particular,
that he was going to continue the publication of the newspaper, possibly, with
a different name. On his behalf, in an interview to “Hayots Ashkhar” daily on
February 22, Hrant Khachatrian noted that the publication of “Iravunk” will
be resumed as soon as possible, saying also that the Editor of the newspaper
Hovhannes Galajian and Director Gegham Grigorian had resigned. On February 23
“Iravunk” was issued with a new Chief Editor, Piruza Meliksetian.
As to “Pakagits”, its publication was suspended because on February 20 representatives
of the RA Service of Compulsory Execution took from the editorial office the
property, owned by the daily founder, “Agap-Hrat” LLC. As reported, on December
14, 2006 the court of primary jurisdiction of Erebuni and Nubarashen communities
of Yerevan obliged “Agap-Hrat” to repay the debt to Martun Ivanian, equal to
9.048 mln AMD (over $ 25,000), accumulated due to the failure to implement the
contractual commitments (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, February
2-8, 2007).
At the press-conference of February 21 it was announced that “Pakagits” will
continue being published, but with a new founder, “Agap-ARD” LLC. On February
22 the newspaper was issued.
