Arpine Hovhannisyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, participated in a discussion on forming the Ethics Commission today, along with the Speaker of the National
Assembly, Hovik Abrahamyan, and representatives of the ARF, Heritage Party and PAP parliamentary groups. www.aravot.am inquired of her how they had managed to convince the PAP to compromise with the RPA, since yesterday they had been against that amendment, she said: “We haven’t convinced anyone yet; discussions are in progress. A few options were proposed by the National Assembly Speaker, by me and by representatives of different parliamentary groups. Now we will discuss them with representatives of the opposition and will probably find an agreeable option. Politicizing is not a problem; we just have a task to devise a mechanism that will not allow politicizing the Ethics Commission. That’s all.”
In response to our observation that she had also admitted that the discussion on this issue had begun with an incident between Nikol Pashinyan and Davit Harutyunyan, whether it was right to put such an issue on the agenda for personal reasons, she said that she would not comment on that, “But I must say one thing; however they comment on that and whatever overtones they find in that, one thing is obvious that it was an attempt to bring political elements into the Ethics Commission.”
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According to Arpine Hovhannisyan, the Ethics Commission has just been formed, and it is normal to make changes every time, given circumstances.
We tried to clear up whether there, nonetheless, was a change in the attitudes of the PAP and the ARF, she said yes, “The task we have undertaken is to rule out politicization, and there are many ways to achieve that. So it can be provided for by the law. Let us wait and see which option we will pick.”
In response to our question whether the Armenian National Congress (ANC) had changed its position, she said that she was not aware of the attitude of the ANC, since no one from the ANC had participated in the discussion.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
