Meeting Held with Assistants of 'Armenia' Faction MPs: Were They Urged to Be Polite?

Two days ago, Seyran Ohanyan, the head of the "Armenia" faction, and secretary Artavik Minasyan convened a meeting with the assistants of their MPs following a known incident, reports ArmDaily.am, citing its sources.

The faction leadership noted that National Assembly President Alen Simonian had told them that the assistants of the faction's MPs were disrespecting members of the ruling Civil Contract party in the corridors, not greeting them, and making dismissive remarks. Consequently, incidents like this occur; henceforth, they urged them to be polite, greet everyone in the corridors, and not confront anyone. Therefore, based on the information we received, they conveyed Simonian's words to the assistants and admonished them to be courteous towards their opponents.

The assistants left this meeting perplexed, stating that opposition MPs call the ruling party members "traitors" and "capitulators," while they are being told to be polite.

The media outlet has reached out to Gerasim Vardanyan, one of the direct participants in the recent incident involving the Civil Contract party MPs and the opposition assistants.

Here is an excerpt from the interview with the media outlet:

- According to our information, during the meeting, Seyran Ohanyan and Artavik Minasyan conveyed Alen Simonian’s words to you and the other assistants, urging you to demonstrate polite behavior towards the Civil Contract MPs to avoid similar confrontations in the future. Do you confirm this information?

- Now I will sit and look at my nails; you are making conclusions based on assumptions and asking me this question, wanting me to comment on it?

- We have received such information and want to clarify from you whether such a thing happened or not.

- What information? Let Artavik Minasyan comment on that.

- We will certainly talk to him too, but we also want to clarify from you whether such a thing happened or not.

- It’s a fairy tale; something was said, nothing like that happened. And what is the point of these manipulative tales?

- In short, it's something characteristic of fairy tales and nonsense, meaning that whether Artavik Minasyan or, I don't know, Seyran Ohanyan tells me how to interact with someone. We don’t know how to communicate; they must tell us how to communicate. Who told you that information? Tell that person it’s shameful; don’t invent such fairy tales.

In a conversation with us, Seyran Ohanyan, a deputy of the "Armenia" faction, confirmed that there was an organizational meeting with the assistants. "Alen Simonian could not instruct me on how to organize our activities within the faction. We, I personally, held a separate consultation with the assistants and experts concerning organizational issues, their support to the MPs, and the overall activities of the collective because we live as a single collective. The consultation was related to the summarization of the session and the overall year 2021, as well as our activities in the next session next year. We operate independently within our faction, and no one could advise us externally; Alen Simonian could not advise either. If Alen Simonian were instructive, he would advise his MPs not to cause that fight," said Ohanyan.