My Picture Will Gather More People in the Street Than the Opposition: Alen Simonian

“There is no longer an opposition in the parliament; there are a few individuals who are looking for places in other political forces to appear in the future parliament,” stated the President of the National Assembly, Alen Simonian. He noted that there is an extra-parliamentary opposition and expressed hope that most of them would appear in the National Assembly. “No one listens to what they say, they can’t gather more than seven people in the street. If I put my picture in the street, more people will gather around it than if they want to. They are political corpses, bankrupt, and have no political agenda,” he said.

In response to a journalist's question about whether Samvel Karapetyan’s force is a competitor, he said, “No, because that proposition of spending money and distributing it, that’s not going to work anymore because there is no political force there; there is a wealthy individual who has ended up in prison, and as has been done for decades, they are trying to find a political shelter in the National Assembly.” He also mentioned, “When have you seen parliamentary opposition demand snap parliamentary elections? There has never been such an example.”