The parliamentary opposition will not participate in the four-day sessions. It will leave for Armenia’s border regions and the Republic of Artsakh.
This was announced today during the session of the RA National Assembly by the head of the “Hayastan” faction, Seyran Ohanyan.
He and the other opposition deputies placed Artsakh flags on their desks.
The secretary of the “Pativ Unem” faction, Hayk Mamijanyan, also announced that they too will not participate in the sessions and will leave for Artsakh.
Vahagn Aleksanyan, a deputy of the ruling “Civil Contract” faction, also removed the Artsakh flag that the opposition had placed on the NA rostrum.
Approaching the rostrum, he took down the flag placed by Ohanyan, stating: “When glory becomes destiny, when foolish talk becomes daily routine work, former ministers of defense are forced to come with the Artsakh flag and place that flag on the NA rostrum.
To place it at a time when, for 30 years, instead of placing this flag in the right places and instead of ensuring the strength of this flag and the flag of Armenia, they have been busy with one thing: plunder. Let them come here, make populist speeches, claiming that they are the ones who keep Artsakh, who keep Armenia, and are concerned. But in reality, for 30 years, while shouting those same things, they have enriched their own pockets and the pockets of their own families. They have made it so that a ‘simple customs officer,’ who recently is involved in a criminal case, has assets worth millions of dollars, 20 apartments in the center of Yerevan, and several cars exceeding a million dollars. I am sure that Artur Ghazinyan left here, sat proudly in his 300-thousand-dollar car and went to save and defend Artsakh. The same probably goes for Seyran Ohanyan and the rest, not to mention Serzh Sargsyan.”
The President of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, responded at the NA session to the deputies of the “Hayastan” and “Pativ Unem” factions, who announced that they would not participate in the parliament’s sessions and would leave for Artsakh.
“I want to address one question to the representatives of the opposition, to those people who voted for Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan and sent these people here. I want to understand: well, when are these people going to work? When are these people going to justify the salary they receive, when are they going to justify the money spent on them by the state? That is, the number of legislative initiatives, legislative initiatives counted on the fingers, aimed at influencing the trial of Robert Kocharyan.
Meetings with international partners, the most famous quoted meeting was voting against the report on Armenia’s democracy with Azerbaijan and Turkey, after which there has been no significant or serious meeting participation. Proposals to hold a meeting with the Prime Minister on the Artsakh topic and to receive information about the situation. No, come here and say that everything is kept secret and avoid all kinds of conversations. Combined work with the Azerbaijani armed forces: a statement about provocation on the border, a statement about provocation on the border. Nikol Pashinyan-Vladimir Putin meeting: a statement and a rally.
It is all interconnected, these are not coincidences, and you must answer for this. Do you think why everyone gathered here today made that announcement and left, so that the button that ensures the flow of salaries into the deputies’ accounts would be pressed? The faction could have quietly issued a statement and not come to this hall at all. But no, they had to come, register, then apply to the staff saying that this is a political movement, please consider our absences as respectful and do not withhold from the salary. This is our opposition today. I appeal to those people who elected our opposition. I understand that at that time there was such talk: they called from Moscow, then from there they said, we are definitely coming to power. Then the citizen of the RA said: I am the one who decides here. The fate of the RA will not be decided in any capital. And what happened happened, well, why don’t you put down your mandates, can you? I am sure you cannot. If you are not conducting activity here, why do you come here, why do you receive a salary, why are those funds written off for your service, so that you can provide material for your websites? Find yourselves,” said Alen Simonyan.
