Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenian publicist and human rights activist Zara Hovhannisyan had filed a police report on January 5 in connection with threats against her and and her family members received via Facebook messages. On January 7, the law enforcement authority reported that a 22-year-old Yerevan man, Andranik Avetisyan, had turned himself in upon learning that the police were looking for him. Avetisyan, registered on Facebook as Andre Makarov, had, in particular, written to Hovhannisyan: “[…] Be careful when leaving the house these days, look around you so as to not get killed along with your baby.”
Avetisyan confessed to writing the threats and subsequently issued a public apology to Hovhannisyan; the publicist, however, told Epress.am she did not believe the 22-year-old had been acting alone. “Who encourages him? Who fills his head with hatred? Who works on him? That's the problem. I'll make sure to ask him [at the investigative committee]” Hovhannisyan said, adding that the young man was full of hatred towards all oppositionists.
The attacks on Hovhannisyan started following her January 3 post on Facebook in support of arrested opposition activist Gevorg Safaryan: the publicist had shared a photo of a t-shirt with the image of Safaryan on it, while user Andre Makarov, in turn, photoshopped the photo, changing his last name to Safaroghli. Hovhannisyan shared the retouched photo as well and urged Makarov to refrain from such provocative actions. The man then took to private massaging to silence Hovhannisyan via death threats.