Activist: parliament must act on impeachment or take blame

PanARMENIAN.Net - Edgar Ghazaryan, a founding member of the civic movement “We Are Awake,” commented on the heated confrontation in Armenia’s National Assembly on May 7 involving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Speaker Alen Simonyan clashing with MPs from the Armenia opposition faction.

In a Facebook post, Ghazaryan stated that if MPs do not initiate impeachment proceedings after what happened, they deserve what they get.

“If, after today’s disgrace in the National Assembly, MPs do not begin the process of expressing no confidence in the prime minister, then they have earned what they receive.

The behavior of Nikol Pashinyan, Alen Simonyan, and others stems from the fact that MPs are not truly fighting them, but rather the authors of the idea of removing them from power,” Ghazaryan wrote.

The tension escalated during the May 7 parliamentary session when opposition MP Anna Grigoryan accused Prime Minister Pashinyan of lacking the political will to hold his allies accountable in corruption scandals. She noted that the allegations published in the press have seen no legal follow-up. In response, Pashinyan said that the press is not a judicial authority, and if one were to follow media reports, opposition members would end up in the National Security Service’s basement as a “fifth column.”

Pashinyan also retorted to a critical journalist’s question with, “Sit down, don’t get on my nerves,” while Speaker Simonyan threatened to have an MP “thrown out” of the chamber.