11:21,
YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan commented on today’s statement made by the opposition Armenia and I have the Honor factions that they are not going to participate in the sessions of the Parliament and are going to visit Armenia’s bordering villages and the Republic of Artsakh.
During today’s session in the Parliament, the Speaker addressed questions to the representatives of the opposition.
“I want to understand, when these persons [opposition MPs] are going to work, when they will justify the salary they receive, when these persons are going to justify the money spent by the state on them?”, the Speaker said.
He accused the opposition in presenting very few legislative initiatives and almost not participating in international visits and meetings.
“The most famous “meeting” was to vote against the report on Armenia’s democracy together with Azerbaijan and Turkey. They haven’t been in any significant, serious meeting after that. There haven’t been proposals to the Prime Minister, to hold a meeting relating to Artsakh or get information about the situation. No, their task is to come here and say that everything is kept secret from them, and thus to avoid all kinds of talks. A combined work with Azerbaijani armed forces. Statement – provocation on border, statement – provocation on border. All this is combined with each other. These are not coincidences. And you must give the answer to this, to your non-attendance to work. In your view, why everyone was here and is making statement and then leaving? In order to press the button that ensures the salaries of the lawmakers”, the Speaker said.
He also asked the opposition MPs why they are not stepping down. The Speaker is confident that they can’t step down.
“Put down your mandates. If you are not working here, what do you do here then? Why do you come here, why do you receive salaries? Why this money is provided to you in order to ensure materials for your websites? No one reads your websites, the TV channels as well, except a small part of your voters. No one watches them. Find yourself”, Speaker Alen Simonyan said.
He once again claimed that, unfortunately, the activity of Armenia’s opposition today has one direction, and that direction is the actions combined with the Azerbaijani provocations.
“The Armenian opposition has no other political agenda”, the Speaker said.