HOVIK ABRAHAMIAN TO BE GLAD IF NIKOL PASHINIAN ELECTED NA DEPUTY

NOYAN TAPAN
DECEMBER 24, 2009
YEREVAN

Speaker of the RA National Assembly Hovik Arahamian said he would be
glad if the editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak daily Nikol Pashinian
wins the upcoming by-election (on 10 January 2010) at electoral
district No 10 in Yerevan and becomes a deputy of the National
Assembly. "The more opposition members we have in the parliament,
the deeper the problems will be discussed, and a lot of good laws
and ideas will be born as a result of reasonable contradictions,"
H. Abrahamian stated during the December 24 press conference.

To recap, N. Pashinian is charged in relation to the March 2008 events
and is currently in prison.

At the request of reporters, the NA speaker spoke about the recent
fact when members of "Republican Party of Armenia" (RPA) faction joined
the petition for release (on medical grounds) of the former NA deputy
Sasun Mikaelian sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment in relation to
the same March events and a short time later the RPA members withdrew
their signatures. In the opinion of H. Abrahamian, who is a member of
RPA’s governing body, the RPA faction members should not have signed
that document to be sent to the Armenian president who is also the
chairman of RPA.

According to H. Abrahamian, it is improper for deputies who are also
members of the party to write a letter to the party head. The deputies
could have applied to Serzh Sargsyan verbally. H. Abrahamian also said
that under the law, the Armenian president is not empowered to grant
a pardon to somebody based on a letter of a deputy and the NA speaker.