Armenia’s parliament today removed opposition MP Tovmasyan as head of the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs.

All sixty-two MPs who voted to remove Tovmasyan are members of Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract faction. There was one abstention.

Opposition MPs boycotted today’s vote, describing it as the latest move by Pashinyan’s allies to seize total control of all government bodies and to stifle the opposition’s voice.

The majority Civil Contract faction earlier accused Tovmasyan of indifference regarding hate speech.

Tovmasyan claims Nikol Pashinyan instructed his allies to strip her of the parliamentary post in retaliation for her defection from his political team following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 Karabakh war.