VIDEO: 'Calm Down, Narek' – Alen Simonyan

Today, on August 11, during an incident at the National Assembly, a heated argument broke out between MPs from the ruling Civil Contract party and the opposition Armenia faction. During this confrontation, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, repeatedly urged one of the ruling party MPs to remain calm.

“Narek, Narek, please calm down Narek Grigoryan, don’t get up from your seat,” Simonyan urged the MP to demonstrate restraint, as reported by lurer.com.

Although the live broadcast of the parliament did not show what was happening in the chamber or identify the MPs inciting the incident, footage captured by journalists from the gallery revealed that one of the first among them was indeed Narek Grigoryan, a member of the ruling team, to whom Alen Simonyan was addressing his remarks.

Grigoryan declined to comment to journalists on his nervousness as he exited the parliamentary session. It is worth noting that Grigoryan began to gain public recognition when he mistakenly said “september” as “seKtember” during a speech in parliament yesterday. He stated, “Tomorrow is seKtember 1, we have the issue of improving... improving the quality of education...”

Incidentally, Grigoryan is considered one of the inaccessible MPs; we tried throughout the day to reach him to verify whether “seKtember” was a slip of the tongue, but our numerous calls went unanswered.

Let us recall that the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, emphasized in his speech during the session that terms like ‘capitulator’ and ‘traitor’ were not personal insults but rather political assessments. Grigoryan reacted from his seat, standing up and shouting, after which opposition MPs also began to shout.

Speaker Alen Simonyan then summoned security personnel to the session hall and instructed them to switch off the broadcast.