| Golos Armenii | |
| Chiefeditor: | Flora Nashkharian |
| Foundation: | 1934 |
| Language: | Russian language |
| Headquarters: | Yerevan |
| Circulation: | 3,500 |
| Circulation Date: | early 2000s |
| Oclc: | 22522583 |
| Website: | golosarmenii.am |
Golos Armenii (Russian: Голос Армении, "Voice of Armenia"), previously known as Kommunist («Коммунист», "[The] Communist"), is a Russian language newspaper published in Yerevan, Armenia.[1]
The newspaper was founded in 1934.[2] During the Soviet period it was a daily organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia and the Yerevan City Committee of the Communist Party.[1] [3] In the 1940s and 1950s, Veniamin Andreevich Syrtsev served as editor of the newspaper.[4] [5] [6] As of 1972, it had a circulation of 45,000.[7]
Kommunist became Golos Armenii in August 1990.[8] As of 1991, it was still an organ of the Communist Party, and was issued six times a week. B. M. Mkrtchyan served as the editor during this period.[9] In the post-Soviet period, it became a thrice-weekly newspaper.[2] Flora Nashkharian took over as editor-in-chief in 1992.[10] [11] Nashkharian worked at Kommunist since 1976, serving as its first deputy editor in the latter years.[10]
As of the mid-1990s, Golos Armenii had a circulation of about 5,000, twelve journalists employed and around twenty other staff members. It was strongly opposed to the presidency of Levon Ter-Petrossyan.[11] [12] The newspaper was closed down by the government on May 11, 1995, in the midst of a dispute over rent of its editorial office. The closure was seen as a move to silence an opposition voice in the media.[13] Shamiram Aghabekian served as deputy editor of Golos Armenii for a period, before becoming the editor-in-chief of Respublika Armenia (the Russian version of the government gazette Hayastani Hanrapetutyun) in 1998.[14] In 1999, Golos Armenii claimed a circulation of 5,230. It was sold for around 100 Armenian dram per copy. The newspaper was printed in A2 format, with four pages.[15] As of the early 2000s, it was estimated to have a circulation of 3,500.[16] It was perceived as close to the government of Robert Kocharyan.[17]