Wednesday 24 October 2018

Armenia PM Nikol Pashinyan addresses LGBT related question in a dubious manner

I have conflicting feelings re Armenia PM Nikol Pashinyan reply on LGBT related question by homophobic MP (Gevorg Petrosyan, from Prosperous Armenia (BHK) party).

To note, this was the first time Pashinyan publicly commented on any LGBT related question, since becoming PM. (see video below, in Armenian)

I liked the example he shared about Armenian guy who he met in a hotel in Paris. When Nikol realised the guy is from Armenia, he asked whether the guy was thinking of returning back to post-Revolution country. The answer was “No” - “I finally managed to escape Armenia“. Nikol then learned that the guy is living with his boyfriend from the same Armenia city in Paris.

But then Nikol didn’t really expand on this telling example and made some questionable remarks, including that LGBT related issues are “headache” for their government, that they prefer not dealing with it, shifting attention from rights to ‘recognising existence’...

I will give Nikol the benefit of the doubt until snap parliamentary elections, to avoid exploiting homophobia by old regime remnants.

However, I expect that after parliamentary elections Armenia PM behaves according to his declared ideals of human rights for all Armenian citizens.

His speech today is not suitable for the leader of Velvet Revolution, dubbed Revolution of Love & Solidarity.