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Adekvad party member Lilit Tumanyan denounced the summoning of Chairman of the Civil Consciousness NGO, activist Narek Samsonyan to the Special Investigative Service as “political repression”.

The opposition activist was summoned for questioning on Saturday following an article published on Antifake.am.

Speaking to reporters, Lilit Tumanyan said the activist has been charged as part of an investigation into an alleged false crime reporting case.

Tumanyan stated such charges have been levelled against no one in Armenia so far. She described the law-enforcement authorities’ move as ‘historical’ in negative sense.

“Now we need to understand whose interests we defend – the state, society, or government. Today we have ended up in a situation when these are different phenomena,” she said.

In Tumanyan’s words, not only Narek Samsonyan, but also other opposition figures who dare to criticize Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government are facing political persecution in Armenia.

"Any authoritarian regime that seeks to concentrate power in its hands and exercise total control will never tolerate free and independent media,” she said. “After the overthrow of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, the next in line is mass media.”