Come out from under the table first before advising others to leave Facebook, Prime Minister to Mikayel Minasyan

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, made a statement today in the National Assembly regarding the electoral bribery of the Prosperous Armenia party while discussing the execution of the 2019 budget. Pashinyan also spoke about the behavior of Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law and the reasons for the news surrounding his family, stating that any political force that lies to the public will not be able to engage in political activities in Armenia.

“Only those political forces that unequivocally defend the values of the non-violent Velvet Revolution of 2018 will have a place in the next parliamentary elections and in parliament,” he said.

While discussing the situation of freedom of speech, the Prime Minister remarked that they made a mistake in lifting restrictions on freedom of speech related to the coronavirus, driven by various individuals and forces. “This press and social media freedom, which we are not going to abandon, is leading people to death, especially when funded by forces spreading filth. Because the forces spreading filth consider that the more people get infected with the coronavirus in Armenia, the more will die, and the more opportunities they will have to speak louder,” Pashinyan added.

Pashinyan highlighted that people who have 3500 fake accounts controlled by an MP talk about fakes from the podium of the National Assembly. “Are you protecting democracy from us? No, we need to protect democracy from some, because democracy is not lawlessness. Democracy cannot rely on parties that make MPs write notes. You say there is political persecution. We have seen 30 years of political persecution; when have you seen a court refuse to detain a victim of political persecution? Why didn’t they refuse to detain us?”

Pashinyan emphasized, “We saw your rally; you spend half a million dollars and can gather only 200 people, half of whom are threatened, etc. Moreover, during those rallies, you stand without masks and declare that there is no coronavirus.”

Speaking about Mikayel Minasyan, the Prime Minister stated, “There’s one person from someone’s family who says, ‘I’m the man,’ but does not come out from under the kitchen table. And he advises others to come out of Facebook and communicate with reality. You come out from under the table first before advising others to leave Facebook.”