Prime Minister  Pashinyan files lawsuits against former MPs Sofia  Hovsepyan and Edmon Marukyan

ArmInfo.  Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has filed lawsuits against former National Assembly deputies Sofia Hovsepyan and Edmon Marukyan. The Prime Minister is demanding public apologies and the retraction of statements he characterizes as insulting and defamatory. The  filings are currently accessible via the judicial information portal,  Datalex.am.

The lawsuit demands that within five working days of the court's  decision entering into legal force, Sofia Hovsepyan must publicly  apologize to the Prime Minister on the hraparak.am news website and  her personal Facebook page. The apology is requested in response to a  June 9, 2026, article titled "I have known this scoundrel for a long  time-I knew how he would cook the numbers," in which she referred to  Pashinyan as a "scoundrel" (podonok). The apology must be prominently  displayed and permanently accessible, with formatting and font size  equal to that of the original publication.  Additionally, the Prime  Minister demands that Hovsepyan retract statements in which she  alleged that he had prior knowledge of election results, falsified  them, and acted as a "liar." Specifically, the Prime Minister  disputes the following remarks: "Pashinyan rushed to declare himself  the winner; he knew very well how he was going to 'draw' all of this,  which is why he said what he did, and I am surprised why we are  surprised. It is not surprising to us; we have known him for a long  time. His mendacity is not news to us, the falsity of his democracy  is also not news, and naturally, as a result of all this, we know  what he is supposed to do."

The retraction must state that these allegations are false, do not  correspond to reality, and defame Nikol Pashinyan. If the same media  format cannot be used for the retraction, it must be published in a  print newspaper circulated throughout the Republic of Armenia with a  minimum circulation of 5,000 copies.

Furthermore, Pashinyan is seeking financial compensation totaling 6  million drams: 2 million drams for non-pecuniary damage caused by the  insult and 4 million drams for non-pecuniary damage caused by  defamation.

As for Edmon Marukyan, he also spoke out on the topic of the  elections on his Facebook page, where he called Pashinyan an  "election falsifier". The Prime Minister considered this expression  an insult. While the case against Marukyan is currently partially  filed, it references a specific video in which Marukyan accuses the  authorities, led by Pashinyan, of failing to count votes for the  "Bright Armenia" party at a number of polling stations.