BMW, Opposition, Hayk Marutyan: A Showcase of Alen Simonyan's Manipulations

On April 11, National Assembly President Alen Simonyan was invited to the 'Facebook Press Conference' program of 'Freedom' Radio, where he responded to questions from Facebook users. FIP.am has highlighted several of Simonyan's assertions from the conference, which are manipulative, false, or contradict his previous statements or those made during the same program.

About Service Vehicles
At the beginning of the interview, a question was raised about the expensive vehicle purchased months ago for the service of the National Assembly President. In response, Simonyan emphasized that the vehicle did not cost $200,000. 'That vehicle is not worth $200,000, it is worth less,' Simonyan declared, repeating the same sentiment that the vehicle is cheaper than $200,000.

In reality, a decision made by the government on November 25, 2021, allocated 90 million drams for the purchase of a new BMW 750Li xDrive LCI class car for the President of the National Assembly. As of the exchange rate on November 25, that amount was approximately $184,300, which means that Simonyan is literally correct that the BMW serving him is not worth $200,000; rather, it is 8.5% less than $200,000. Nevertheless, while discussing this and three recently acquired accompanying vehicles, Simonyan stated that he does not make the decisions regarding their purchase and that their acquisition is aimed at ensuring the security of senior officials.

'The state makes decisions, and it does not matter whether I will be the President of the National Assembly, you will be, or one of our opposition partners will be, or the person asking the question will be. There are protocols, and the protocols have certain requirements... The system, the state, the staff decides how many bullets to buy, how many batteries to buy, how many liters of gasoline to fill, and I have nothing to do with that.'

Shortly after, while again discussing the purchase of vehicles, Simonyan stated that he himself decided to acquire a non-armored BMW, contrary to the 'protocols.' 'Instead of giving $550,000, I have set my safety aside, saying there is no problem. And realizing that the existing vehicle... incurs much larger expenses, I have decided that from the money we saved, we can buy a new car.'

It turns out that in one case, Alen Simonyan insists that he does not have the authority to make decisions regarding the vehicles being acquired and that he is subject to security protocol requirements, while in another case, those protocols either do not exist or are not in effect, as he himself decided to acquire a new vehicle. Incidentally, another noteworthy argument from Simonyan regarding the vehicle acquisition topic came during the Facebook press conference, where he stated that simply changing the tires of the previous armored vehicle required 30 million drams. However, at the end of last year, when the public was actively discussing the purchase of a vehicle for the President of the National Assembly, Simonyan's press secretary, Zovinar Khachatryan, stated in an interview with 'Haykakan Zhamanak' that the expenses associated with the vehicle had increased so much that changing the tires alone would cost 17 million drams.

Auroranews asked Khachatryan what the 30 million was that Simonyan spoke about, to which the press secretary responded, 'Perhaps he got confused.'

In general, a large portion of the press conference was dedicated to the topic of vehicle acquisition, and Alen Simonyan continued to insist that the vehicle was acquired not for him personally but for the institution of the President of the National Assembly. The topic was also addressed in the next segment of the press conference, when the recent speech of former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan was discussed.

It is worth recalling that in his final speech as mayor, Marutyan accused the ruling power of departing from revolutionary values, particularly noting that acquiring an expensive vehicle for the President of the National Assembly in a poor country is 'a show-off that... causes bewilderment and smirks.' Furthermore, Marutyan did not mention Alen Simonyan's name. After the speech, Simonyan took to Facebook with an emotional post directed at Hayk Marutyan, which was met with anger from most users. During the Facebook press conference, addressing this episode, Alen Simonyan stated that Marutyan's mention of the expensive vehicle was aimed at him personally. 'Only 10 days ago, we spoke with each other as friends, but he was trying to turn everything upside down before leaving, leveraging me, my name,' he said. To the journalist's observation that Marutyan did not name Alen Simonyan but spoke about the vehicle acquired for the President of the National Assembly, Simonyan replied, 'Well, fine, no name was given, but who was the President of the National Assembly? He was!'

In other words, when the public discusses the value of the vehicle serving Alen Simonyan, he responds that the vehicle is not for him personally but for the institution of the President of the National Assembly. Conversely, when the criticism is aimed not at him but at the price of the vehicle purchased for the institution of the President of the National Assembly, Simonyan accepts it as a personal issue and responds with personal insults.

Simonyan also made another notable argument regarding the source of funding for the service vehicle acquisition. Among the justifications for purchasing the expensive vehicle, Simonyan mentioned that it was bought not with state budget funds but from the savings of the National Assembly.

'These are not state budget funds but funds allocated to the National Assembly, which the state transfers to the National Assembly, and the National Assembly uses it to solve its ongoing issues. ...These are not direct state funds. These are savings made from funds allocated to the National Assembly,' said Simonyan.

At this point, it is only necessary to note that funds allocated to the National Assembly are public funds in any case, and even if they were private donations, accountability regarding their effective management would be necessary. Moreover, in this specific case, the source of the National Assembly’s savings is the state budget.

About the Opposition
Speaking about the opposition, Simonyan touched upon the activities of the parliamentary opposition and stated that they are doing almost nothing. 'What were they elected for, or are their legislative initiatives limited to bringing a law regarding the Armenian flag?' Here, Simonyan's words create the impression that the parliamentary opposition has operated since its election with fewer or insignificant legislative initiatives. However, in reality, the legislative changes proposed by the parliamentary opposition are not limited to only changing the law regarding the flag.

Thus, in the second half of 2021, the 'Armenia' faction and its members introduced a total of 12 legislative proposals, of which only those authored by Aghvan Vardanyan regarding the 'Amendments and Supplements to the Law on the Flag of the Republic of Armenia' and 'On Administrative Offenses in the Republic of Armenia' were adopted. From January 1 to April 13, 2022, the faction and its members introduced a total of 13 legislative proposals. This means that since the commencement of the work of the 8th convocation of the National Assembly, the opposition 'Armenia' faction has presented 25 legislative initiatives. As for the other opposition faction, 'I Have Honor,' a written inquiry was sent to obtain the complete list of the faction's legislative initiatives, and we will present it as soon as we receive it. Nevertheless, in a verbal conversation, faction member Taguhi Tovmasyan informed Fip.am that she alone had presented 4 legislative initiatives. According to the official website of the parliament, faction member Tigran Abrahamyan presented a bill aimed at amending and supplementing the 'Law on Military Service and the Status of Military Personnel' in 2022.