Sasoun Mikayelyan Should Apologize Himself, Says 'My Step' MP Sophia Hovsepyan

Any form of violence, whether verbal or physical, is incomprehensible, unacceptable, and condemnable. This was stated by MP Sophia Hovsepyan from the 'My Step' faction in a conversation with NEWS.am, apologizing to citizens for the recent incident.

“I apologize to every citizen of the Republic for having to witness such a situation. There is no need to seek for culprits here, even if we responded to hints or direct speech with emotions, or if there was provocation and we succumbed to it, then succumbing to provocation is also a fault because we did not realize or prevent it. And this incident occurred in the National Assembly hall, in the presence of the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister, and at the same time, the whole world learned about it. This is a serious issue, and when many say that similar incidents happen in various parliaments, we must particularly stand out to exclude such incidents from our parliament,” she said.

When asked whether she believes Sasoun Mikayelyan should at least apologize, the MP stated that she thinks Mikayelyan himself should do that, rather than waiting for anyone to urge him to apologize. “He himself needs to realize what he has done and not done, as well as the 'Enlightened Armenia' about their actions and inactions. The issue is not concentrated on one person, Mr. Mikayelyan, this was the final outcome of a long process, unpleasant as it may be, but it seems that this preparation had been going on every day, in different forms. It was very unpleasant that all this took place in the National Assembly hall, in front of everyone, and even physical violence was employed. Everyone here should apologize, including myself, if I had even a partial or non-partial contribution to this, purely for the fact that I too have a responsibility for presenting all this to the public,” she added.

In response to the observation that many insisted that Sasoun Mikayelyan should resign from his mandate, the ruling party MP said that the matter should be discussed and a collective opinion must be provided later, adding that since such a discussion has not taken place, she will not express her personal opinion. “We have not had such a discussion, and if we consider that all 132 deputies were participants in this incident, then all 132 should resign as well, what is the point? This should be discussed, and an assessment should be made after the discussion. I personally have not reflected on and have not looked back at it, because, frankly speaking, I feel terrible about this situation, and regarding what I have seen, I do not want to reflect on it, we are all in a very emotional state and later we need to see, evaluate, and judge coolly what happened and understand what steps need to be taken,” she concluded.