At the suggestion of Alexan Petrosyan, aka Alik of MAP, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, a bank account was opened to help villagers who suffered from the hail in Armavir. Hovik Abrahamyan, the National Assembly Speaker, was the first to respond to that proposal and transferred his monthly salary, urging the other MPs to follow his example. www.aravot.am inquired of Galust Sahakyan, the leader of the RPA parliamentary group how much money he was going to transfer to help villagers. He replied: “I will urge my boys to regularly transfer either their whole salaries or a part of their salaries to that bank account. I think we will have considerable amount of money. Moreover, we have requested the list of students in 42 villages. We also intend to pay for their education. We want to involve the whole society.” Galust Sahakyan assured that he himself will give his whole salary.
Vahram Baghdasaryan, an RPA MP, didn’t say how much money he would give, but he assured that he will be one of the first people to help villagers. Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Science, replied that if the executive or the legislature or people engaged in the political system could help villagers somehow, they would do that. “Whether they will transfer their whole salaries or a part of their salaries depends on everyone’s ability.
“Generally, I agree with the MP’s proposal that it is possible to assist the residents of those settlements in universities. We can, we consider and will surely try to guarantee discounts. The problem will be solved partially, if not completely. Surely, we will at least pull the thorn out of people’s finger.” In National Assembly Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov’s words, “Finances are important here, but will is more important. If finances had been bigger, I would have given more than my salary, but since I am not engaged in business and have a professional source of income like many MPs – i.e. teaching in the university – naturally, I will personally participate and will give only some percentage of my salary to my dear villagers.” When asked, many MPs immediately claimed: “But of course, we will give our salaries,” and as Eduard Sharmazanov noted, if they didn’t have any subsidiary source of income, they didn’t have businesses, how are they going to give their monthly salaries to residents of Armavir? They have to provide for their own families, now don’t they?
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
