Before the members of the Cabinet were approved, there had been many speculations that the next Minister of Culture would be singer Shushan Petrosyan, particularly given the fact that she was not included in the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) list for proportional representation. However, since Hasmik Poghosyan remained the minister, it was explained with the fact that she was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s wife Rita Sargsyan’s close friend. Today www.aravot.am tried to find out from the minister whether that friendship with the President’s wife had played any role in her remaining the Minister of Culture. The minister replied, “I thought it had been forgotten long ago. More than half a year has passed. Did you remember it when the budget was put forward? I have just made my reports, you can draw your own conclusions whether I work, because I have contacts, or whether I work or not. I leave that choice to you. Please, you can write based on my report that the report is very bad, she works, because she has contacts, or it was an average report, she works by herself. You
know what, I reject all comments of that kind, because I have just made a report and one should understand from that report whether I exist thanks to some contacts or I nonetheless do some real work in this republic.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
