“If Alen is not here, the black dog will be faint.” Arsen Ghukasyan reacts to Gurgen Arsenyan's remarks

“No state official of the RA can in any case and situation abandon the obligation related to the return of our prisoners of war, our captives,” said Gurgen Arsenyan, a deputy from the ruling party, during a conversation with journalists after leaving the National Assembly building. He mentioned that he conveyed the parents' demands to Alen Simonian through the faction leader.

In response to the question about who considers the prisoners to be deserters, Arsenyan clarified: “At this moment, we have military regulations, the provisions of which explain what a deserter is. The qualification related to desertion can only be provided by a relevant investigation.”

Commenting on the qualifications announced by officials, he said that many times it is from the realm of rhetoric. “In other words, in public politics, sometimes political figures state things within the framework of rhetorical art that can be interpreted by people as rules. This is not a rule; there is a Russian expression for it — ‘оборот речи’ (turn of phrase)...”

The relatives of the servicemen countered the ruling party's deputy, stating that Alen Simonian is the Speaker of the National Assembly and does not have the right to allow such expressions. Arsenyan clarified that he was not specifically referring to Alen Simonian but to the matter in general. “If Alen Simonian is not here, the black dog will be faint,” said Arsen Ghukasyan, a relative of a missing person.