“Neither Robert Kocharyan nor Serzh Sargsyan have ever been elected in their lives”: Simonian

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonian, commented on the incident that occurred in Parliament today, when opposition lawmakers declared they would not leave the podium.

“All of this comes from the fact that our opposition, which returned to the National Assembly with its agenda, has no agenda. There is no agenda, and a tactic has been chosen to disrupt, ensure presence, provoke, speak lies from the podium, and keep spinning the same record,” he said.

Alen Simonian noted that those who became MPs on the Republican Party list are talking about the report from the human rights organization “Freedom House,” while the latter had almost declared Serzh Sargsyan a dictator. “And the members of the Republican Party come here and talk about democracy.”

He also addressed the vocabulary of the opposition, when speaking about the Prime Minister or the Speaker of the National Assembly, they declare “the person occupying that position.” “My dear friends, neither of your two leaders, neither Robert Kocharyan nor Serzh Sargsyan, have ever been elected in their lives; the Armenian people have never chosen them, not to mention that the presence of the Republican Party here... it’s like going to a store, buying a refrigerator, and getting a fan as a gift. They ended up here as a result of elections, and they tell me ‘the person occupying the office of Speaker of the National Assembly’,” he argued.

Alen Simonian stated that the opposition claims the authorities must leave but do not declare that they want new elections. “They don’t have the courage to say it because they know that at least that part, this part, will mostly not be here.”

He also spoke about the political action of MP Taguhi Tovmasyan, who called for remaining near the National Assembly podium and not leaving. “She surprised not only the authorities but also the opposition. It was clear that the opposition MPs were surprised by Ms. Tovmasyan’s move. This reminded me of another moment in Ms. Tovmasyan's extraordinary political career when Arthur Vanetsyan announced a sit-in in public, and Taguhi Tovmasyan showed up there and said, ‘I will be here from now on,’ and two days later she left for abroad.”