The Party of Dogs Exists, So Have Yours Compete: Speaker of the National Assembly to Clergy

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, during his speech in the parliament, urged the Dashnaktsutyun members to look at their historical legacy. "Artsvik Minasyan says that the church is at the roots of the political process. This is absurd; how can the church be at the roots of politics? Go and register your party. The Party of Dogs exists, so let your party exist as well, and compete with each other," he said.

He noted that he is a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church and that the Armenian Church is full of decent people. "But what you are doing... you enter the church, and there's a bucket of water placed under the candle to collect the wax that remains so they can melt it down and sell the candles again: it has become an economic establishment. Do you know how much profit there is from candles? It's a hundredfold profit. Don’t treat the people like fools; don’t treat them like idiots. People are aware of everything. You played with all the profits, and you played with the profits of the 'Erebuni' as well," he stated.