Narek Galstyan
Narek Galstyan serves as founder, director, and editor of 24news.am, holding a 10% ownership stake in "24 News" LLC since the company's establishment in 2018. He operates as the public face of the outlet, conducting interviews with political figures and experts that are published on both the website and its YouTube channel, particularly through his flagship program "Profzruyc" [“Proftalks”] co-hosted with Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan.
Galstyan's career spans journalism, media entrepreneurship, and political activism. He led Radio Liberty's "Maxliberty" youth program from 2003 to 2006 and founded HayNews.am in 2009, serving as its editor until 2012. His government experience includes working as assistant to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan from 2012 to 2013.
His political involvement began during his student years as chairman of the "Sargis Tkhruni" student union affiliated with the Social-Democratic Hnchakyan Party (SDHK). In 2007, he was physically assaulted after distributing anti-government leaflets opposing then-President Serzh Sargsyan, an incident he attributed to political persecution involving police officers who detained and beat him.
Following internal party conflicts and splits within the SDHK in 2009, Galstyan became party chairman in 2013, resigning from his government position to assume the role. Under his leadership, the party faced accusations from former chairwoman Lyudmila Sargsyan that it had been "captured by Tigran Sargsyan" for political purposes. The party organized citizen rights rallies in 2015, with Galstyan criticizing Armenia's oligarchy as the "main dominant force in political and public relations."
The SDHK attempted to participate in 2017 parliamentary elections, initially pursuing discussions with businessman Gagik Tsarukyan's alliance before suspending negotiations due to alleged agreement violations. The party ultimately withdrew from the elections, citing artificial obstacles and insufficient time to prepare candidate lists. During the 2018 anti-government protests that led to Armenia's political transition, Galstyan's party called for acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan's resignation and demanded the election of a "people's candidate."
