Pashinyan lashes out at opposition over corruption allegations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rebuked opposition lawmakers during a tense May 7 session of Armenia’s National Assembly, asserting that media allegations alone do not equate to legal proof. The confrontation began after opposition MP Anna Grigoryan accused Pashinyan of lacking the political will to hold his allies accountable for corruption scandals.

“You have no political will to prosecute your team members. There’s not a single defendant in the ANIF case. What is there to be proud of, if press reports don’t lead to legal action?” Grigoryan stated, as reported by RFE/RL.

In response, Pashinyan claimed that if governance were based on media reports, many opposition figures would be imprisoned. “In the Republic of Armenia, the press is not the judiciary. If we went by media articles, you’d have been hanged and exiled by now,” he declared. “What do the articles say about you? That you're foreign spies. Why are you even sitting in this hall? If I followed the media, I’d throw you all in the basement of the National Security Service (NSS). You’d be the first to go, and you will go,” he added, visibly agitated.

He also criticized the opposition for attempting to provoke him, stating, “Don’t try to manipulate or fray my nerves.”

Following the outburst, National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan interrupted the session and issued a stern warning to MP Kristine Vardanyan for addressing the Prime Minister informally. “Don’t speak to the Prime Minister with ‘you.’ Stay within your limits. I’ll throw you out of this hall. I’ve spoken this way even before I had power — including with your bosses,” Simonyan said before declaring a recess, according to Panorama.am.