Disinfo: Istanbul convention will drive Armenia on the brink of civil war


Armenia wants to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which will become a national catastrophe for the country. Armenia will turn into the “Netherlands of the South Caucasus”. Gays and transgender people from all over the world will be able to move and reside in Armenia. As a result, this will create a situation close to civil war, because an overwhelming majority of the Armenian population is traditional and conservative.


Recurring disinformation narrative about the Istanbul Convention. This message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the morally corrupt West and threatened traditional values.

The Istanbul Convention (the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) is a treaty of the Council of Europe that opens the path for creating a legal framework at a pan-European level to protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence.

The Armenian Ministry of Justice clarifies that the Convention does not threaten Armenia's traditional values. The Convention states that traditions, cultures and religion cannot justify violence against women. In addition, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued an opinion that "there are no provisions in that Convention that could be said to 'contradict' the Constitution of Armenia."

Other disinformation cases about the Istanbul Convention are available here.

Read similar cases claiming that the Istanbul Convention will destroy traditional families and that it is attacking identity and traditions, that an influx of 50 000 perverts is expected from abroad and that Istanbul convention is a threat to the Armenian Army.


  • Reported in: Issue 182
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 24/01/2020
  • Language/target audience: Armenian
  • Country: Armenia, The Netherlands
  • Keywords: Conspiracy theory, Western values, LGBT
  • Outlet: Verelq.am
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The German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 assumed the partition of the USSR

Polish leaders repeatedly met with Hitler, Göring and Ribbentrop. In 1934, the Piłsudski-Hitler pact was signed. This agreement was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Polish Ambassador to Germany Józef Lipski, known for his anti-Semitic views. Among other issues, this agreement assumed the partition of the land of the USSR, in which Poland could also have taken part.


This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and an attempt to erode the disastrous historical role of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact by stating that other European countries signed various international agreements with Germany throughout the 1930s.

It is impossible to compare the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact as the former was a standard international agreement aimed at the mutual recognition of borders and a declaration that existing political contradictions would be solved through diplomatic tools. There is no historical evidence that this pact contained any secret protocols, which assumed common aggressive actions of Germany and Poland against the USSR or other countries. Moreover, the pact did not include any agreements on advanced political, economic and military relations between Poland and Germany. Secondly, in 1934, the plans of Hitler were still unknown, so all European countries carried out normal diplomatic relations with Germany.

Coronavirus is a US provocation against China

All this is against the Chinese. The American newspaper The New York Times was the first to report about the virus. How did they find it? The American Consulate General was evacuated immediately. What was the reason for such a rush? Usually, diplomats leave last. They stay in a time of war, but this time they left. The current situation is helping Trump to get the right trade agreement with China.


Conspiracy theory and a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about the China coronavirus.

In response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Chinese authorities have placed more than a dozen cities under quarantine. The World Health Organisation is working with Chinese authorities and global experts to learn more about the virus. The virus "2019-nCoV” comes from a family of viruses that include the common cold and viruses such as SARS and MERS. There is no evidence to suggest it was developed artificially as a weapon of mass destruction.

Crimea never belonged to Ukraine

It is about time Kyiv abandoned its claims to the [Crimean] peninsula, which has never belonged to [Ukraine] either by law or spirit, and was always a foreign territory.


This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

According to international law, Crimea is a part of Ukraine. On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea and stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. By signing the 1997 Friendship Treaty, Russia also recognised that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine. Russia violated international law as well as key principles of the European security framework by illegally annexing the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol in 2014.