Today www.aravot.am inquired of Naira Zohrabyan, the secretary of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) parliamentary group, whether the reason for their boycott of the National Assembly 4-day session was the attorney’s application regarding Vartan Oskanian or it was also because of the vote on the budget implementation, because there was an opinion that the PAP was facing a dilemma – it couldn’t vote against, since it would turn out that it had voted also against the work of its ministers, it couldn’t vote in favor either, because it would have jeopardized its opposition attitude.
In this regard Naira Zohrabyan ensured, “Our boycott had nothing to do with the vote on the budget implementation. We naturally would have been against the budget implementation. I think our position had to be clear for everyone from the beginning. Yes, our political boycott was related to the political farce, which was staged in the National Assembly, i.e. the attorney’s application that had no legal grounds. But the PAP will participate in the work of the 4-day session from October 22 on, because the National Assembly floor is a very important floor for us.”
Let us remind that Mikayel Melkumyan, a PAP MP, also stated that if the PAP had participated in the vote on the budget implementation, they would have voted against. However, answering him, Eduard Sharmazanov, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and the press secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), stated convincingly during his latest press conference that it couldn’t be the official opinion of the PAP, “Firstly, I am far from thinking that this is the official opinion of the PAP. I want to ask – my dear colleagues, you had 4 ministers in 2011. Your ministers were not against any decision at any Cabinet meeting. Who prevented you from giving up the ministerial portfolios at the time? And if it is an admission that your ministers worked badly, it is a different matter.” When www.aravot.am inquired why he was convinced that the opinion of being against the budget implementation was merely the MP’s opinion and it was hardly the official opinion of the PAP, Eduard Sharmazanov replied, “Because a question arises why the people have cast so many votes for your inefficient work, since you say that it was inefficient work and you had four ministers.”
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In Naira Zohrabyan’s words, “I suggest that different colleagues of ours not be engaged in manipulation of words. It is the official opinion of the PAP – we would have necessarily voted against the budget implementation. And we have talked about the activities and responsibility of our ministers and I don’t deem necessary to raise this issue again and again and talk about it all the time.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
