Zaruhi Postanjyan

Zaruhi Postanjyan (Armenian: Զարուհի Փոստանջյան; born January 16, 1972, Yerevan) is an Armenian Member of Parliament since 2007, a public activist and a member of Heritage board. She is the head of "Heritage" fraction of National Assembly of Armenia.

Biography

She graduated from Yerevan MYUD Law Institute in 1994 and received a patent on advocacy in 1999. In 1998-1999, she worked as a lawyer of Helsinki Association NGO, Armenia, in 1999-2000 she was a lawyer in Women’s Rights Center NGO. Since 1999 she is a member of Advocates’ Chamber of Armenia.

She was the lawyer at the Wrestling Olympic Youth Sport School of Armenia. From 2000 to 2007 she was the Chairperson of the Advocates for Human Rights NGO, and the author and presenter of the TV programme Advocate.

She was awarded a diploma, an order and a memorial medal by the Armenian All-National Union Zoravar Andranik.

On May 12, 2007 she was elected a member of the National Assembly of Armenia. In 2012 she was re-elected to the Armenian parliament.

She is married and has three children.

Sargsyan's casino controversy

In October 2013, when Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan addressed the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, Postanjyan took the floor to ask him if he had visited a casino in Europe, if it was true that he had lost 70 million euros in the process and where he had obtained the money. Sargsyan denied ever having visited a casino and Postanjyan was subsequently removed from the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly.

Defending Zaruhi Postanjyan’s right to freedom of speech, Heritage party condemned political persecution of its member. According to the pro-opposition website Armenianow.com, Postanjyan got hero’s welcome from supporters at Zvartnots Airport after challenging President in Strasbourg. People held flowers, balloons and Armenian tricolors as they came to greet Postanjyan.