Yesterday Hovik Abrahamyan, the National Assembly Speaker, promised that he would transfer his monthly salary to the Armavir hail relief account. Then he urged MPs to perform their “sacred duty” and help villagers. www.aravot.am inquired of Vardan Ayvazyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group and the chairman of the National Assembly Economic Issues Commission who is linked to many businesses, whether he would donate his salary to Armavir relief. V. Ayvazyan stated in response: “Let me make my decisions by myself, may I? Thank you.” Stepan Safaryan, a former member of the National Assembly and a former secretary of the Heritage Party parliamentary group, noted that H. Abrahamyan’s proposal, “to put it mildly, doesn’t solve any problem, since its solution is not in MPs’ making a harrowing scene and appearing a philanthropist, but such territories should be quickly declared disaster areas.” Then he added: “It would be better, if the National Assembly Speaker raised a question of declaring that territory a disaster area, and people who had suffered from natural disasters were compensated. So no one needs that charity from them. People don’t want to see sorrowful MPs winning points by PR; they want to see the state’s assistance.” In response to our question whether he would have donated his salary to Armavir relief, if he had been an MP, S. Safaryan said: “No, I wouldn’t have donated, since those people don’t need charity. They are not extremely poor, so that 5-10 thousand drams would be a serious sum for them. They wanted to engage in farming, whereas they will not have any revenues and, worse still, will have to pay interests. They want to have the problem, which has stemmed from force majeure, solved. On the one hand, this move cannot be criticized, since they took a humane attitude, on the other hand, if they declare their annual profits, let them donate their annual profits to Armavir relief, instead of monthly salaries.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
