Armen Ashotyan

Armen Ashotyan is a politician and the vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), the party associated with former President Serzh Sargsyan that governed Armenia until the 2018 Velvet Revolution. A former Minister of Education and Science and longtime HHK figure, Ashotyan was arrested in July 2023 on charges of money laundering and corruption — charges that the Republican Party and international observers have characterized as politically motivated persecution of an opposition figure.

His case became emblematic of the broader pattern of selective prosecution of opposition politicians under the Pashinyan government. The arrest drew criticism from the Council of Europe and human rights organizations, who raised concerns about the fairness of the proceedings and the political context in which they occurred. Ashotyan has remained in custody through pretrial detention, making him one of the most prominent political prisoners in Armenia in the pre-2026 election period. See his guest page for his full episode history on Groong.

Groong has covered the Ashotyan case in the context of political prisoners in Armenia, the state of the rule of law under the Pashinyan government, and the prospects for a fair electoral environment ahead of the June 2026 parliamentary elections.

Groong episodes that include this tag

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