Yesterday Vazgen Manukyan, the Chairman of the National Democratic Union party, applied to the Prosecutor’s Office demanding institution of a criminal case against the Haykakan Zhamanak daily, with the accusation of insult and slander. The reason is the article under the title "Vazgen Manukyan’s "Mein Kampf" – My Struggle" published on December 15 in the Haykakan Zhamanak, which, according to V. Manukyan’s December 19 statement, "is built on a written document ascribed to me without any legal grounds." The interesting thing is that only a day ago Manukyan had said that he wasn’t going to apply to the Prosecutor’s office with a legal suit and said that he will only apply to them for an expertise of his handwriting. According to Manukyan, with this publication the newspaper stepped beyond all borders of journalist ethics and morality. As a response to that the daily has suggested Manukyan that they can provide the sample of Manukyan’s handwriting for a comparison. However, Manukyan refused. Then why would Manukyan change his statement within a day? Perhaps this decision was made by the government to file a criminal case against an opposition newspaper on the eve of elections. And if the article in the Mein Kampf article the program was entitled “how to do?” in this case it would be better to say “by whom to do.”
