Epress.am News from Armenia
President of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA), MP Ruben Hayrapetyan could not not sue local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), since the newspaper published a report accusing him of having committed serious crimes. Hayrapetyan said this himself, while meeting with journalists in Yerevan today.
“The news agency uses blackmail, discredits [me], accusing me of committing very serious crimes — narcotics business, the purchase and sale of arms, human trafficking… That is to say, for such an article, they decide to take at least one shot per hour…,” he said.
The Republican Party MP said he contacted the newspaper on several occasions, asking for a retraction, but his request was not granted.
“Please tell me, if it was you, what would you do? How could I be involved in narcotics, arms sales and human trafficking and no one know about it?” he asked journalists rather rhetorically.
Hayrapetyan said he also contacted Haykakan Jamanak after the paper published a piece in which it claimed the MP had assaulted a police chief.
“I contacted them; I said, publish a retraction. They didn’t. I appealed to the courts. They come to court and say, ‘Let’s reconcile; we’ll publish a retraction.’ I say, ok; I pull back from the court case, [but] they don’t publish a retraction,” he said.
When journalists pointed out that the comments published in the Haykakan Jamanak article were made by president of Moscow-based Armenian club Miabanutyun (“Unity”) Smbat Karakhanyan, Hayrapetyan said he doesn’t know who Karakhanyan is and that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear.
“And I heard that they did something very bad [referring to Haykakan Jamanak chief editor Nikol Pashinyan] in Artik [penitentiary], which is not becoming for a man. But I don’t believe it — I honestly don’t believe it. Well, I’m not going to stand up and say that it’s true,” he said.
The deputy repeated that accusations of his being involved in the drug trade offend him because “he has a bad attitude toward drug addicts.”
“You can ask in Avan — when I find out there’s a drug addict, what I do,” he declared.
Journalists then asked him to elaborate: what does he do when he finds out about a drug addict?
“I call him, talk with him — I say you’re doing something very bad,” Hayrapetyan said laughingly. Journalists likewise began to laugh.
“You don’t know what I have to do? I have to punish [him], hit [him]. Or you think that I would avoid [doing that]? If I say that I played the violin, that’s when you can be surprised,” he continued.
Hayrapetyan said he can spend the 2 million 44 thousand drams he is expected to receive from the daily in different ways: he can donate the money to seniors’ homes or orphanages, or provide assistance to former player of Armenia’s national team Karapety Mikayelyan, who is need of a heart transplant.
“I will ask my colleagues [fellow plaintiffs in the case, MPs Samvel Aleksanyan and Levon Sargsyan] to combine our funds, add something more and give it away,” the FFA President said.