Who are the “anti-Soros” protesters?

For several months now, there have been active protests in Yerevan and negative propaganda against Hungarian-born American businessman George Soros and

the Open Society Foundations (OSF) funded by him (commonly referred to as the Soros Foundation).

The protests are coordinated by Narek Malyan, adviser to former Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan and co-author of the Adekvad program. On May 27, the latter founded the “VETO” public-political movement, the Facebook page description of which is as follows: “Blocking of all organizations and foundations affiliated with George Soros in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.”

According to the publications on the Facebook page of “VETO” movement, “Adekvad“, Democratic Liberal Parties and “Civic Consciousness” non-governmental organizations have joined the initiative.

“VETO” has already carried out three protests near the OSF office on May 31, June 3 and June 11.

Fip.am decided to find out who is participating in the “anti-Soros” actions.

Narek Malyan

As we mentioned, the major player in the protest actions is Narek Malyan. The latter is a writer and has authored several books.

 

Malyan was adviser to former police chief Vladimir Gasparyan in 2011-2017, with the exception of July-October 2016, when he was dismissed from the post of adviser to Gasparyan as a result of the optimization process.

Malyan was born in 1980. His father, Father Petros Malyan, is a clergyman. In 2015, he was a clergyman at the Police Educational Complex.

In 2009, as the chairman of the “Union of Experts” organization, Malyan initiated the “Unpleasant Broadcast” award ceremony and awarded the award to the Public Television.

In 2011, Malyan introduced himself as a political technologist. He took that “position” in 2011. In June, he was hosted with that title on Aram Abrahamyan’s PostScriptum program broadcast on “A1 +”.

Malyan mentioned that the website Pravda.am, which is no longer functioning, belonged to him.

In 2014, as the director of the advertising agency Peoplemeter, audiobook.am website was created on Malyan’s initiative. The presentation of the website took place in the Primacy of the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese, and was attended by the then Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and other officials, and the Primate of the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese Archbishop Kchoyan.

In 2015, Mher Yenokyan, who is serving a life sentence, filed a lawsuit against Malyan. The latter claimed that Malyan had published false information about him. However, in 2016, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun Administrative Districts rejected Yenokyan’s lawsuit. The lawsuit against Malyan, citizen Isabella Abgaryan (currently a member of the “My Step” faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders), Blognews.am editor-in-chief Aram Antinyan demanded that they refute defamatory information related to him, and pay 2 million AMD in compensation. In his post, Malyan claimed that Yenokyan allegedly “dismembered Iosif Aghajanov’s body, then put it in a sports bag and demanded money from the relatives for the body.”

After the April-May 2018 revolution, Malyan began to actively criticize the newly elected authorities. Together with Artur Danielyan, he founded the Adekvad program, which is mainly directed against the current government.

Arthur Danielyan

For about half a year, from June to December 2018, Arthur Danielyan was the host of the Adekvad program on Malyan’s Facebook page. On May 27, 2019, Danielyan and a group of supporters announced the establishment of the Adekvad party.

Danielyan used to be a member of the “Civil Contract” (CC) party until the end of 2016. As of January 2016, he was in charge of the Strategic Planning Group of the Civil Contract Party. Later, he left the Civil Contract Party due to internal conflicts, and after the 2018 revolution, he became an opponent of former teammate Nikol Pashinyan.

Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan  

Ter-Nakalyan has been the owner and editor-in-chief of Blognews.am news site since 2012, and is a founding member of the Adekvad Party.

Menua Harutyunyan

Menua Harutyunyan, owner of slaq.am news website, is also participating in the “anti-Soros” protests.

In parliamentary elections of 2018, Harutyunyan was the 9th in the proportional list of the Republican Party (RPA).

Tigran Kocharyan

Tigran Kocharyan, nicknamed “Elephant”, was considered a pro-government blogger during the Republican Party’s tenure, but he denied any connection with the authorities. Currently, the blogger actively criticizes the current authorities.

Robert Melkonyan

Until 2012, Colonel Melkonyan, known as “Bazaz“, was the Deputy Head of the Yerevan Police Department.

During his tenure, Melkonyan was known in the press as “master of dispersing protests and rallies” of the opposition.

A few months ago, on March 4, Melkonyan took part in the installation of a wreath by Malyan in front of Yerevan State University with a picture of Larisa Minasyan, head Open Society Foundations – Armenia.

Narek Samsonyan

Narek Samsonyan is chairman of “Civic Consciousness” NGO.

He announced on June 2 that he was joining the movement led by Malyan. Samsonyan stands out with his active criticism of the current government.

Ashot Hovhannisyan

We can learn from Hovhannisyan’s Facebook page that he is an ARF member.

Chris Berteryan

Chris Berterian, an Armenian nationalist activist living in Belgium and the Netherlands, also took part in VETO’s June 3 rally.

During the rally in front of the OSF office Berterian introduced himself as one of the organizers of the “yellow vests” movement in Belgium, which aired on EuroNews TV channel.

Examining the information available in open sources, Fip.am managed to find out details from Berteryan’s political past.

According to the Dutch NOS public television channel, Berterian, a resident of Flanders in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, has been known in far-right circles since the 1990s, and as of 2015, he was the leader of the neo-Nazi Nederlandse Volks-Unie (NVU, Dutch People’s Union) Party in the northern province of Brabant in the Netherlands.

According to the same source, Berteryan was previously imprisoned for theft.

There is a video on the Internet shot in June 2018, in which Berteryan participates and speaks at the rally organized by the above-mentioned NVU party.

According to the Dutch anti-fascist Kafka research group (Antifascistische Onderzoeksgroep Kafka), Berterian headed the neo-Nazi organization Odal-Aktiekomomitee in Flanders in 1999 at the age of 19.

In October 2014, Berterian and his 19-year-old friend posted posters “Our Socialism is National” in several locations in the Belgian city of Mechelen, including near the Dosin barracks used by the Nazis as a concentration camp. “National Socialism” is the full name of Nazism used by the party led by Adolf Hitler.

In March 2016, Berteryan was ordered by the court to pay a fine of 600 euros for this activity. During the search, literature denying the Holocaust was found in his home.

Ani Hovhannisyan

Ani Hovhannisyan, director of the analitik.am website, is also an active member of the “VETO” movement. In July 2017, the latter was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for extorting money from PAP MP Tigran Urikhanyan on threat of spreading information defaming his and his wife’s name. According to Urikhanyan, Hovhannisyan demanded that he pay her 300 thousand AMD every month in exchange for not publishing defamatory information about him.