Video: We have had a President in Armenia who was ignorant, says Vahagn Aleksanyan

“It is very difficult when a lack of minimum legal knowledge is detrimental to our effective discussion,” stated MP Arzvik Minasyan while presenting a special opinion on the draft law on “State Secrets,” alluding to the speeches of the ruling party MP Vahagn Aleksanyan and Arpine Davoyan.

Minasyan countered Davoyan, saying there was absolutely no manipulative expression in his speech and that he made clear inquiries. The ruling party woman MP had declared in her speech that Minasyan had repeatedly addressed the grounds for denying access to information containing state secrets, which she called manipulation.

The MP from the “Armenia” faction pointed out that he had always spoken about this in the past—when there were grounds to deprive MPs of the right to access state secrets—but it has never been applied. Therefore, the meaning of that provision is solely for exerting pressure.

“To come out from this podium and insult the presidents of the republic by saying that they do not know Armenian, do not know this or that. Well, you know Armenian, but if you lack even minimum legal knowledge—how can we have an effective discussion surrounding the combination of these concepts?” Minasyan responded to Vahagn Aleksanyan’s speech.

Before this, Aleksanyan had said in his speech regarding the draft law on state secrets, “The law on holding public office should be tightened, certain provisions should be added. The law clearly states that public officials must be proficient in Armenian, but we have had a President in Armenia who was ignorant, did not know the language properly, and that man has confessed about it multiple times—in broken Armenian. Just recently, he even wrote a phrase consisting of two words, making four spelling mistakes within it.”

Stating that they have attempted to carry out effective work in 3-4 sessions on the draft law in the committee, Arzvik Minasyan revealed that it was declared precisely in the committee that there is a fundamental disagreement on certain matters. “Therefore, is there any manipulation here, why are you distorting, why are you interrupting the discussion that has truly been a good start, why are you cutting that thread and this is already the umpteenth case,” Minasyan said, urging to withdraw the law, emphasizing that he is not sure whether the ruling party's majority will listen to his call.