MOM Armenia reports that Past is published by the sole proprietorship of Varuzhan Babajanyan.
Media Ownership Monitor Armenia · 2025 · Open the source
Exact quote
Past daily newspaper is published by Varuzhan Babajanyan Sargsi sole proprietorship.
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Opposition
Past / Pastinfo
past.am- Ownership and ties
- Word choice
Confidence: high
Why this label
- Ownership and ties: 6 facts
- Word choice: 1 cases of loaded wording in 12 analysed articles
Owners and funding
Connections
MOM Armenia reports that Past's editor Artak Tshagharyan previously headed the office of MP Karen Karapetyan, brother of Tashir group owner Samvel Karapetyan.
Media Ownership Monitor Armenia · 2025 · Open the source
Exact quote
Artak Tshagharyan serves as editor of the newspaper. He previously served as head of the office of Karen Karapetyan, a deputy of the National Assembly during the 2nd and 3rd convocations. Karen Karapetyan is the brother of Samvel Karapetyan, owner of the Tashir group of companies and a Russian-based businessman. MOM Armenia reports that owner Varuzhan Babajanyan ran as a Prosperous Armenia candidate in the 2021 snap parliamentary elections (he also ran on the Tsarukyan bloc / Prosperous Armenia lists in 2017 and 2018).
Media Ownership Monitor Armenia · 2025 · Open the source
Exact quote
Babajanyan participated in the 2021 snap parliamentary elections as a candidate from the Prosperous Armenia party, which failed to enter parliament. MOM Armenia reports that Babajanyan also founded orer.am and that oratert.am was registered under his name.
Media Ownership Monitor Armenia · 2025 · Open the source
Exact quote
In addition to Past newspaper, Babajanyan also founded the website orer.am. Another website, oratert.am, was also registered under his name. DFRLab found that past.am, orer.am, oratert.am and six other sites registered Yandex Metrica counters within a sequential range of 182 IDs, which it reads as a batch set-up by a single operator.
DFRLab (Atlantic Council) · 2026-08-24 · Open the source
Exact quote
Nine websites contain Yandex Metrica counter IDs within a sequential range of only 182 numbers. These websites are past.am, orer.am, pressmedia.am, press24.am, 1or.am, oratert.am, oragir.live, newsarm.live, and armenia24.live. DFRLab attributes past.am to the 'Sargssyan' developer cluster of websites it describes as pro-Kremlin.
DFRLab (Atlantic Council) · 2026-08-24 · Open the source
Exact quote
The Sargssyan™ cluster includes iravunk.com, past.am, hayeli.am, Lurer.com, pressmedia.am, newsarm.live, orer.am, newspress.am, times.am, and armenia24.live, among others. What independent reports say
No data found in the sources we accept.
Other findings
This is a separate axis, not pro-government or opposition, and it does not affect the label.
DFRLab reports that Past.am was among the three pro-Russian-corpus websites most referenced in popular Armenian Telegram channels.
DFRLab (Atlantic Council) · 2026-08-24 · Open the source
Exact quote
Past.am (780), Alphanews (576), and 24news (535) were the most referenced outlets. DFRLab lists Past.am among the pro-Russian Armenian media outlets in its 2026 study, with examples of its content.
DFRLab (Atlantic Council) · 2026-08-24 · from the table embedded in the article · Open the source
Exact quote
Warns of economic collapse outside the EAEU; compares Pashinyan to Zelenskyy in a negative light; claims a "Moldovan scenario" for Armenia.checked on the source page
Word choice in real news
12 articles analysed: 1 with loaded wording, 11 neutral.
What happenedMirzoyan told a parliamentary committee that Azerbaijan has not put a demand to change the Constitution in negotiations but publicly sets it as a precondition; MP Tigran Abrahamyan said the authorities are fulfilling that demand.
Դուք չեք ընդունում, որ Սահմանադրություն փոխելը Ադրբեջանի պահանջն է, բայց փաստացի գործողությամբ այդ պահանջը կատարում եք
EmphasisFavours the opposition The headline consists of MP Tigran Abrahamyan's accusation that the authorities are 'in practice fulfilling' Azerbaijan's demand, without attribution in the headline; the opening names him, and the minister's statement is not in the headline.
OriginalWhat happenedGagik Vanoyan dismissed as head of State Protocol Service
Նիկոլ Փաշինյանը պաշտոնից ազատել է պետական արարողակարգի ծառայության պետ Գագիկ Վանոյանին։ Որոշումը ստորագրվել է այսօր։
Neutral Reports the dismissal in factual terms, without speculating on the reasons.
OriginalWhat happenedLilit Stepanyan to give up mandate and become Kotayk governor
Լիլիթ Ստեփանյանը վայր կդնի ԱԺ պատգամավորի մանդատը եւ կնշանակվի Կոտայքի մարզպետ.
Neutral Reports the planned appointment in factual terms, in line with other outlets.
OriginalEvery quote is checked: it appears word for word in its source. The highlighted words in the examples are taken unchanged from that outlet's own article.
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