“Certainly, I applied, I applied to officials for my business, they supported me as an MP at the time, yes,” Hakob Hakobyan, a former National Assembly member who is a candidate for MP in no. 19 electoral district, said during the show Post Scriptum on A1+, answering Aram Abrahamyan’s question whether he had ever applied to any official for his business. After this answer, there were comments in mass media that Hakob Hakobyan had actually abused his office to take care of his business. Hakob Hakobyan actually confirmed by that that he had been engaged in business, violating Article 65 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia that stipulates that an MP cannot be engaged in business activities, hold an office in state or municipal bodies or commercial organizations, do any other paid work, except for scientific, pedagogical and creative work.
During a conversation with www.aravot.am on the phone, in response to an observation that after he had admitted that he had violated the supreme law of the country, the Constitution, how he was aspiring after a seat again, Hakobyan clarified, “Yes, I said that they had supported, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t know what they did, they violated the law. I am not engaged in my business, others are” and went into detail that the support had been just “formal,” “If I had to go to an official for something, for a paper, they could have given the runaround for an ordinary citizen, but they received me as an MP at once. Is it a violation of the law?” Moreover, Hakobyan assesses his step as a step of a “brave man,” “I want to differ from the banal words of others ‘I am not engaged in business, I don’t do anything, I don’t do this, I don’t do that…’ people know everyone, they know everything quite well. Now, if Samvel (Samvel Alexanyan – N.G.) says that he is not engaged in business, what percentage will believe him?”
Our interlocutor also added that he had even intended to answer Aram Abrahamyan’s question how he had earned his first million, “But he didn’t ask.” In response to our same question, he made Ford’s example and said that everyone had earned his first million that way.
Let us remind that in response to Aram Abrahamyan’s another question whether he wanted his business to develop a little, whether he wanted to become an MP for that, Hakobyan said, “No. Now I do business mostly abroad. I have diminished my business a lot.”
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
