On December 4, at the entrance to the National Assembly of Armenia an incident occurred between correspondent of “Hraparak” daily and bodyguard of Ashot Aghababian, MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.
The incident took place during a protest action against the ratification of the agreement on Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Civic activists, having gathered near the parliament, had been urging the MPs to vote against the agreement. The activists were calling “traitors” the supporters of accession to the EEU.
On the same day, December 4, “Hraparak” published a piece on the incident, titled “Burnash’s Bodyguard Ran Riot” (Ed. Note: the headline referred the nickname of the MP).
According to “Hraparak”, the protesters hissed down MP Ashot Aghababian, who arrived to the parliament, naming him a traitor. The latter did not respond. However, the MP’s bodyguard reacted to the yelling, hitting the video camera of “Hraparak” correspondent, the newspaper wrote (without mentioning the journalist’s name in the piece).
Answering the question, why he hit the camera, the bodyguard replied that the journalist had no right to film, “Hraparak” noted. The daily added that the journalists covering the protest action blocked the bodyguard’s attempt to beat activists.
The newspaper’s piece also provided the video footage of the incident.
