Serzh Sargsyan’s “Article” in the New York Times

Armenia’s presidential press service on September 24, issued a release stating that President Serzh Sargsyan’s article had been published in the International New York Times. In fact, the president’s article, “One of the History’s Dark Unfinished Chapters: the First World War and the Armenian Genocide,” was a paid advertisement. The article can not be found on the International New York Times website.

The press office of the president had difficulty answering CivilNet’s question as to why the article could not be found online and when asked whether the article was indeed a paid advertisement, they said “we don’t think so.” In fact, CivilNet was able to get a scanned copy of the print version of the paper. Sargsyan’s article is posted in the advertisement pages of the publication. CivilNet was not able to confirm how much money was paid from the Republic of Armenia’s budget for the advertisement.