For example, on the day of the 2019 speech, Martirosyan ordered dinner online from a local supermarket. The man who delivered the food recognised Lilit’s face from the media. He later shared her address and phone number on social media - his post soon went viral.

Lilit reported the situation to the police, but the case, along with several other reports, was closed due to lack of evidence. “All these cases were closed. We had a revolution, but the police are the same,” Martirosyan told me. After her personal information was disclosed, Lilit had to temporarily relocate to protect herself as well as her mother, who was psychologically pressured by her neighbours.

Protest outside Armenian parliament after Lilit Martirosyan's speech, 2019.

The backlash continued when a protest was organised outside the Armenian parliament three days after Martirosyan’s speech. Attendees, which included several priests, condemned the fact that “perverts have climbed up the parliamentary lectern”. As the cameras rolled, one protester opened his bag, took out a knife and stated that he was “ready to liquidate sexual minorities with it” and made a sign of cutting one’s neck with his hand. A police investigation into this incident was also closed “due to lack of evidence.”

As stated in Human Rights Watch World Report 2020, Armenia still does not have anti-discrimination legislation. In May 2019, a legal amendment was initiated by the Prosperous Armenia party aimed at criminalising “non-traditional sexual orientation propaganda”, but the government did not approve the draft. In November 2019, there was another attempt by the same party to make amendments to ban same-sex marriages under Armenia’s family law. The proposal was dismissed on the grounds that the Armenian constitution already defines marriage as a union between “a woman and a man”.

According to a joint report prepared by Pink human rights defender NGO and Eastern European Coalition of LGBT+ Equality presented at the 35th Universal Periodic Review session, Armenian “legislation does not provide for comprehensive substantial and procedural regulations for prevention, investigation, and responsibility for hate crimes.” It further stated that Armenian “criminal law does not define any core concepts related to hate crimes, specifically what hate crimes are, which are protected characteristics, or specifications and other issues for responsibility and punishment of such crimes”.

A movie about a transgender athlete

Armenia was shaken by another wave of transphobia in fall 2019, this time around a documentary film about Mel Daluzyan, a transgender Armenian weightlifter.

Mel Daluzyan, formerly known as Meline, is the first weightlifter from Armenia to win a world medal in the female category of World Weightlifting Championship. He also received two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2007, 2008 and 2010 European Weightlifting Championships, thus being the first Armenian to become a European Champion in weightlifting, repeating this success twice. Representing Armenia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, he later came out as transgender and moved to the Netherlands in 2016.

News about the upcoming movie by Armenian filmmaker Inna Sahakyan triggered huge controversy in social media. The documentary became an easy target for political manipulations and maneuvers. Sahakyan participated in a competition for feature-length films organised by Armenia’s National Cinema Center and won a $42,000 grant to partially cover the production costs. This fact was used by several far-right and anti-Velvet revolution groups, which tried to prove the “hidden anti-national” agenda of the current government.

Against a background of organised and proliferating attacks in social media, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan personally addressed the issue in a parliamentary Q&A. “Refusing to participate in the creation of this movie would be a stigma on the forehead of Armenia and its government,” Pashinyan announced.

Although Pashinyan pathologised transgender phenomenon, comparing it to congenital disorders, he nevertheless rigorously and openly defended Daluzyan, pointing out his victories brought to all Armenians: “We are next to a person during their glory time, but not when they have a problem – this is not my viewpoint. This person is under my personal protection,” he declared.

Referring to the attacks on social media, Pashinyan claimed “it is cheap propaganda" organised by those who have been deprived of means of corruption and use every possible method to come to power again.

Manipulations to regain power

That LGBT rights and feminist struggles are manipulated by Armenia’s anti-revolution and nationalist groups is not a surprise.

The last decade has proved that in Armenia, gender is geopolitical. “National values”, “traditional families”, the “future of our children” are all concepts that tie into Armenia’s various geopolitical trajectories. As the dynamics that followed the “Velvet Revolution” show, the political forces working against the revolution build up their rhetoric in two directions: state security to “prevent” exacerbation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and campaigning against LGBT people to “save” Armenian traditional values from the Pashinyan government.

In this vein, two public campaigns dominated 2019 – one against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the “anti-Soros” campaign. The first group of campaigners announced that the Istanbul Convention had a hidden agenda to spread “LGBT propaganda” and legitimise same-sex marriage. The latter targets both institutions that have received funding from Open Society Foundations Armenia and activists who fight for sensitive socio-political issues.