NSS Surveillance of Armenian Gays & Swingers

Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on the English translation of an article written by fugitive opposition newspaper editor and activist Nikol Pashinian on surveillance of prominent gays and swingers by the successor to the KGB, the National Security Service (NSS). It is alleged that compromising dossiers are collected which can later be used for political blackmail.

Nicol Pashinyan is a close associate of Armenia’s first president and leader of opposition movement Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Pashinyan is in hiding now to avoid political persecutions by Armenian authorities following the recent violent crackdown on opposition in Armenia in the aftermath of disputed presidential election.

Armenian Kamilion notes that “Pashinian is bringing into the conversation important changes in sexual practice that a portion of the Armenian upper-middle class is adopting, namely, wife-swapping.”

It was always known that secret services (and not only in Armenia) conduct surveillance of gay people or - in general - individual’s private life to collect a “dossier” and use it. However, it was perhaps for the first time that the existence of Armenian swingers has been noted. I heard rumours from here and there about Armenian swingers before but I did not know that they became organised to the extent of having own club. Watch out England!