Nikol Pashinyan

Nikol Pashinyan (Armenian: Նիկոլ Փաշինյան) is an Armenian politician, journalist, publicist. He was a leading member of the Armenian National Congress, an opposition movement led by former President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He was the editor of Armenia's best-selling daily liberal newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak (The Armenian Times), which has been highly critical of the governments of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan. As the head editor of the daily since 1999, Pashinyan has been an important contributor to the discourse of the various movements that have opposed the governments of former President Robert Kocharyan and current President Serzh Sargsyan, whose presidency Pashinyan and the opposition reject as illegitimate. In 2000, while he was the head editor of Haykakan Zhamanak he was convicted on charges of defamation and libel against different people.

Pashinyan supported Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the 2008 presidential elections, when he was described as Ter-Petrosyan's "customary crowd-warmer." He went into hiding shortly after the deadly unrest following the election; he was wanted by the Armenian police on allegations of murder and mass disorder. In June 2009, he came out of hiding and turned himself to the police. He was released after an amnesty was granted to many political prisoners in May 2011, nearly two years after he was jailed.