Prime Minister Pashinyan sues Hraparak daily for defamation

By Siranush Adamyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has filed a defamation lawsuit against Hraparak daily, requesting a public retraction and 1 million drams (US$2,600) in non-material damages over an article that questioned his personal and moral integrity.

According to court records reviewed by Hetq, the lawsuit was submitted to Yerevan’s Court of General Jurisdiction on July 4.

The article in question, published in 2025, speculated on the Prime Minister’s private life, citing rumors that he had been spending extended periods behind closed doors with his press secretary. Hraparak claimed that such questions about the Prime Minister’s personal conduct were legitimate, especially in light of Pashinyan's own public statements questioning the Armenian Catholicos’ monastic vows.

In a Facebook post on June 6, Pashinyan denounced the piece, vowing legal action to defend what he described as the integrity of his family and spiritual life. “These are not tools for misleading the public, but values and principles,” he wrote.

Pashinyan’s suit demands that Hraparak post a court-specified retraction on both its website and official Facebook page, stating:

“On June 6, 2025, we published an article titled ‘Is Pashinyan Cheating on His Wife?’ on www.hraparak.am. We hereby state that the information published in that article is entirely defamatory toward Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and does not correspond to reality.”

He further requests that the retraction appear without additional commentary or editorial framing.

This marks the first time Pashinyan has pursued legal action against a media outlet since taking office. In response to the Prime Minister’s public remarks, Hraparak editor-in-chief Armine Ohanyan commented online: “You believe you have the right to ask the Catholicos if he is celibate—yet our journalist has no right to ask questions about you?”