Full Working Situation: Vahagn Aleksanyan on Heated Exchanges in Parliament

Parliament Deputy Speaker Vahagn Aleksanyan commented on the incident that occurred in the parliament session hall when the situation escalated after the opposition MP Davit Ghazinyan was expelled.

Aleksanyan noted that the session hall was in a complete working situation. “I reprimanded the MP for speaking from his seat, the MP continued, I reprimanded him again, he continued once more, and I applied another disciplinary measure by requesting that the MP leave the session hall. The MP stated that he would leave the hall when he wanted, which is a violation. Everything happened absolutely within the framework of the ‘Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly’ law, within the boundaries of decency, until the last moment I spoke with Mr. Ghazinyan in a polite manner,” said Aleksanyan.

Addressing the accusations from opposition MPs that the presiding officer is too busy commenting instead of managing the session, he emphasized, “This is not the case. First, according to the ‘Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly’ law, it is not prohibited for the presiding officer to express himself at any point. Secondly, the presiding officer has the obligation to ensure the smooth conduct of the session.”

After the incident, opposition MPs left the session hall. “We left the hall because the presiding officer was actually busy commenting instead of leading the session,” noted Tigran Abrahamyan, the secretary of the “Strong Armenia” faction, adding that they will participate in the voting for the candidates for the chairpersons of the parliamentary committees tomorrow.