Hayeli․am published an article on December 22 at 9:40 pm, referring to Aravot.am’s article, “Protest Rally in Stepanakert in Support of Robert Kocharyan: ‘We don’t leave our heroes alone.'” On December 23, at 4:30 pm, this article had 22,595 views according to the website’s view counter.

The article on Aravot.am was published exactly a year ago on December 22, 2018. On that day in Stepanakert, a rally was held in support of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan.

The article, re-published a year later, states, “A protest rally was organized in Charles Aznavour Cultural Center’s park in Stepanakert in support of former President of Armenia and Artsakh Robert Kocharyan. The leaders of the initiative have made speeches condemning the arrest of Robert Kocharyan. The organizers briefly outlined Robert Kocharyan’s journey, his contribution to the Artsakh Liberation War and called for his immediate release, periodically chanting “Freedom to Robert Kocharyan” and “Freedom to the President.”

In fact, there was no rally in support of Robert Kocharyan in Stepanakert on December 22, 2019.

Hayeli.am used a photo from the aravot.am article of another demonstration in Stepanakert. Not the December 2018 rally, but another one from the summer of the same year.

An article referring to the same Aravot article and using the same photo was also published by Yerevanblog.am, which had 2921 views as of 4:30 pm on December 23.

Hayeli.am has published the one-year-old news article on it’s Facebook Page. The post of the old news being presented as something new has also been spread to other Facebook groups and pages.

Anahit Danielyan