NA CHAIRMAN PROPOSES ARF TO KEEP THE POSITIONS IN THE LEGISLATIVE BODY
Lena Badeyan

"Radiolur"
29.04.2009 17:24

President of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan made a special
statement at the National Assembly today. He called on Chairmen of the
Standing Committees, who are members of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, to withdraw their resignations. In response to that,
head of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction Vahn Hovhannisyan thanked for
the proposal and said it would be discussed.

Let us remind that in the evening of April 27 Vice-President of
the National Assembly Hrair Karapetyan, Chairman of the NA Standing
Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamyan and Chairman of the NA
Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Interior Affairs
Arthur Aghabekyan submitted their resignations after ARF Dashnaktsutyun
decided to withdraw from the opposition. Hovik Abrahamyan’s proposal
was meant for Arthur Aghabekyan and Armen Rustaman, there was no
mention of the Vice-President of the National Assembly. The Supreme
Body of Dashnaktsutyun will discuss the suggestion during a sitting
today.

However, it is already obvious that the proposal is going to be
accepted, and Dashnaktsutyun will probably keep the chairmanship
of the two Standing Committees. How fair is it with respect to the
resigned Minister? In response to the question Armen Rustamyan stated:
"If we consider the authorities and the opposition in the classical
way, the authorities are those who form the Government, while holding
positions in the National Assembly should be normal. This is not
connected with being or not being part of the coalition, because
the National Assembly is a completely different platform and its
leadership is quite a different thing. Therefore, this should not be
connected with Dashnaktsutyun, it should be connected with having a
normal civilized political culture in the country."