Avinyan Discusses His Statement Made at Surmalu

Yesterday, I went to Surmalu to see the scale of this tragedy with my own eyes and to understand what the root cause was. This was stated by Tigran Avinyan, a member of the Civil Contract party's board, in an interview with Petros Ghazaryan of Public Television.

“Yesterday, I went to Surmalu to see the scale of this tragedy with my own eyes and to understand what the root cause was. I spoke with the staff of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, laid flowers there, and had a very substantive conversation with journalists about fire safety, fireworks, and various other issues. There was no political statement as such; a journalist asked three times if I was a candidate for mayor of Yerevan. I said yes, that is true, but that was not what the statement was about that day. That day was an opportunity to discuss the incident, review fire safety rules, and talk about the prohibition of fireworks,” he said.

Avinyan noted that it was not the time for campaigning; on the contrary, negative campaigning has begun actively. He also mentioned that unless anything changes, municipal elections will be held in Yerevan next autumn.

It is noteworthy that the day before, Tigran Avinyan had visited the Surmalu shopping center, the site of the explosion, where he stated that he was there as a candidate for mayor from the Civil Contract party.