Pashinyan’s wife criticises media for reporting that she had gone on a luxury vacation in Turkey
Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has refuted a Turkish news article claiming she vacationed at a luxury resort in Antalya, Turkey
The article was reportedly published by Sozcu, which alleged Hakobyan vacationed at the Titanic Mardan Palace Hotel from 19–22 June. They also claimed Hakobyan had spent over €100,000 ($120,000) during her time there.
‘It turned out that the first lady of Armenia first settled in a luxurious presidential suite, “King Suite”, which costs €6,000 ($7,000) per night’, the article read, adding additional claims that Hakobyan also spent money on ‘luxurious things such as a champagne bath, a personal yoga trainer, a personal maid, a yacht rental, and the mini bar’.
In a post on Facebook on Wednesday, Hakobyan hit back at news reports covering the claims, calling the story ‘a good fairy tale that our undignified, ignorant, and stateless journalists are sharing with joy’.
According to her, the ‘reality’ was that she had been traveling with her daughters in Armenia’s Syunik Province.
‘What can I say, we had a great time!’, Hakobyan wrote.
She gave a full rundown of her schedule, noting that they left Yerevan on 19 June before spending the night in Goris at the HarMar hotel.
The following day, she and her daughters went from Goris to Kapan, where they ‘spent the whole day admiring the Khostup mountain, the city, the River Vachagan, and the people’.
On 21 June, her daughters travelled onwards to Meghri while she returned to Yerevan in order to give a speech on education in Maralik.
‘I spent the whole day at home on Sunday, that is, 22 June, and I have no photo to prove it’, Hakobyan wrote on Facebook, while attaching photos from the rest of the trip with her daughters.
Hakobyan then lambasted the ‘ignorant Armenian journalists’ who ‘have neither a source, nor a correspondent, nor bear the title of reporting news, and they have no shame’.
‘The Armenian Prime Minister’s wife can walk with her children in different cities of Armenia, be in front of hundreds of people for hours, communicate with dozens of people, take pictures, and be video recorded via phones by many people, and our ignorant people will get zero information about it’, she wrote.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
