Publications: 'You are abstaining from voting, so that such measures pass' - Parliament as a place of shouting and settling scores

The newspaper 'Publications' reports that an incident occurred yesterday between My Step party deputies Hakob Simidyan and Vardan Atabekyan, which is not the first and, according to My Step members, will not be the last. The issue is that the group's secretary, Hakob Simidyan, is in charge of controlling the votes, and despite efforts from My Step to assure that the times of forced voting are behind them, and that there is now pluralism, the incident yesterday proved otherwise. The cause of the confrontation was indeed the voting.

Vardan Atabekyan and several other ruling members went against the faction and did not vote 'against' the controversial bill of Geverg Petrosyan from the BBB regarding the prohibition of same-sex marriage and adoption.

Atabekyan, Taguhi Tovmasyan, Artashes Petrosyan, Tigran Karapetyan, and Artak Manukyan abstained from voting, while others simply did not vote, including Sasun Mikayelyan, Sofia Yoysipyana, Karen Hambardzumyan, Sergey Atomyan, and others. We were told that weeks before this, Simidyan had a stern conversation with deputy Yerjanik Hakobyan and other dissenters, but luck was not on Atabekyan's side. When Simidyan turned from the front row and, looking at Atabekyan, said, 'You are abstaining from voting so that such measures pass,' referring to the BBB members, Atabekyan felt that the 'passing of measures' was directed at him, decided not to swallow the insult, and invited Simidyan out of the hall to settle the score.

Details are available in today's issue of the newspaper.