Why Agazaryan Voted in Favor of a Bill He Opposed: The Deputy Responds

Today, the National Assembly approved in the second reading and in full the project of Hayk Sarksyan, a deputy from the Civil Contract faction, which proposes to give citizens over 27 years old who have not completed mandatory military service the opportunity to avoid criminal liability by paying 15 million drams to the state budget.

Opposing this bill was deputy Hovik Agazaryan from the Civil Contract party, who had announced at the previous session that he would do everything possible to prevent the adoption of this bill; however, today he also voted in favor.

“I have not changed my mind; I could not convince my colleagues. It was the faction's decision that we should vote in favor. I will never vote against the faction's decision, but I did everything I could, I made a public speech saying that this law will not bring any good to Armenia, only bad things. Therefore, I believed that this project was not ready for adoption. But, in any case, I could not convince my colleagues, and we have what we have,” Agazaryan told Aysor.am in an interview.

In response to the observation that voting in favor of a bill he opposed might imply going against his principles and beliefs, Agazaryan stated, “Of course not. Where is the guarantee that I must necessarily be right? There are discussions, there are debates. We also have discussions within the faction. If I express my opinion, I assert my point of view, but if it does not find approval among my colleagues, why should I presume that my opinion is the most correct? I will wait 3-4 months and very calmly show that this was a pointless law and that its negative effect will be much greater than its positive one. I declare this now as well.”

Hovik Agazaryan is confident that the regulation proposed by Hayk Sarksyan will not be utilized by many: “One or two people will come to pay 15 million drams and be exempted from service. A few others will come and serve. But let's look at it from another perspective. We know that today people are being exempted from military service through corrupt schemes. We are morally legitimizing this corrupt scheme. We are sending a negative message to our society. That is our concern. I still cannot imagine that many people will take advantage of this opportunity. A few months later, we will see the results of how many will come and make use of this possibility. I think the number will be such that it wasn’t even worth discussing.”