A pro-government lawmaker this week called for an end to romanticizing a gangster-style life on television as per-day crime figures soared to a record high in Armenia over the weekend.

Armen Ashotyan, a senior Republican Party member who heads the parliament’s committee for science, education, culture and youth affairs, suggested at the National Assembly on Tuesday that television and in particular a number of TV serials glorifying the underworld have their share of responsibility for the rise in crime observed of late.

“The situation on the air of our television companies does not remain stably bad, but rather goes from bad to worse from year to year. In the past, domestically produced serials were so primitive that they could not have a strong influence on people. The level of their production today has been raised and it creates a great danger, as one of the subjects of these serials is the underworld and its ways presented in a romantic light,” charged Ashotyan, adding that characters other than those abiding by law become positive heroes in Armenian TV sitcoms.

The “wake-up call” sounded by Ashotyan drew strong criticism from at least one serial producer that alleged the times of Brezhnev-style censorship were coming back with the young lawmaker’s statement.

The Shant TV evening news program’s popular anchor advised Ashotyan to give specific names rather than make general accusations.

In its commentary the company that produces the prime-time “Vorogayt” (“Trap”) serial giving a colorful setting to the underworld and starring a number of popular actors as crime figures discarded the accusations as groundless, saying that the logic and whole tone of the film series is far from presenting crime in the positive light. At the same time, it said that police representatives in the serial do not take bribes and have no dealings with representatives of the underworld like it often happens in real life.

“In serials like this we present the reality. Perhaps the authorities should first change the reality and only then address the contents of serials,” the company explained.

Meanwhile, a record number of “criminal rumbles” was registered in Armenia on October 24-26 as a result of which at least five people were killed and seven wounded.

Four people were killed and one wounded in the town of Spitak in Armenia’s Lori province on October 24 during what prosecutors believe was a clash of criminal gangs settling scores with each other.

One person was killed and another was wounded in broad daylight on October 26 as two assailants opened fire on a VAZ-2121 car in the yard of a residential building in Yerevan’s Komitas Avenue. Hrachya Matevosyan, 43, died, and his companion identified as 32-year-old B. Harutyunyan survived with gunshot wounds.

The crime was later qualified by Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepyan as a “revenge killing” in retaliation for the murder of the chairman of the Armenian Association of Hunters Sayad Davtyan almost a year ago. Davtyan’s 29-year-old nephew Hayk surrendered to police and confessed to the murder.

Three people received gunshot wounds in Stepanavan, Lori province. Police there learned on October 24 that the town’s mayor Sargis Gharakeshishyan fired at three young men at the local Drakht restaurant owned by him. One of the young persons, Armen Gevorgyan, who manages Stepanavan’s social welfare fund, stabbed the mayor with a knife which he later claimed was self-defense.

One man received a severe injury in a mass brawl that started near the “Tsghotner” restaurant in Yerevan Saturday evening. Fistfights and quarrels among young men were also reported over the weekend at several Yerevan discotheques. Some newspapers reported that a senior state official’s family member was embroiled in one of the quarrels, but police and restaurant owners disproved the allegation.

The clashes came less than a month after President Serzh Sargsyan pledged “visible consequences” for those who engage in settling scores in street fights.

In a policy speech at the National Assembly on October 2, Sargsyan urged parliament members and the entire society to put an end to criminal manifestations describing them as unacceptable.

“We all know very well that cases happen in our reality when separate people decide that it is allowed for them to use strong-arm methods to solve some issues in the street. I clearly state – it is incomprehensible and unacceptable for me,” he said.

“No one in the Republic of Armenia can consider that he will go unpunished for his deed, no one in the Republic of Armenia can ascribe the functions of the state to himself. I suggest that all refrain from rooted vicious habits because the consequences will indeed be visible.”