A court in Yerevan opened on Friday hearings on the legality of a local
government body’s decision to evict Armenia’s best-selling daily newspaper
highly critical of the government from its state-owned offices.



The “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily has long leased the premises, located on the
ground floor of an apartment building in downtown Yerevan, from the
administration of the central Kentron district free of charge. A relevant lease
agreement between the two entities was signed in 2003 and extended in 2007.



Kentron’s executive administration and legislative council decided to terminate
the agreement and give the property to a little-known children’s cultural center
last April, at the height of the Armenian government’s post-election crackdown
on the opposition. “Haykakan Zhamanak” rejected the decision as politically
motivated and challenged it in the court.



“It is hard to imagine what and how children will create on the damp ground
floor of an apartment building,” its legal counsel, Tigran Atanesian, said at
the start of the court hearings. “The only purpose of the decision is to
restrict freedom of speech.”



Zaven Arakelian, a lawyer representing the Kentron administration, denied
political motives behind the eviction order and said it did not violate any
Armenian law. Arakelian argued that under the terms of the agreement with
“Haykakan Zhamanak,” the administration was allowed to unilaterally end the
lease.



The popular daily strongly backed opposition leader and former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s bid to return to power as a result of the February 19
presidential election. Its outspoken editor, Nikol Pashinian, was a key speaker
at Ter-Petrosian’s massive post-election rallies in Yerevan.



Pashinian was among opposition leaders who went into hiding to avoid arrest
following the deadly suppression of the protests. Despite remaining on the run,
he continues to regularly write hard-hitting commentaries in his paper.

By Hovannes Shoghikian