“If Mr. Hakob Hakobyan has insulted any Armenian citizen in his interview, I am ready to apologize to these citizens”, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov told Aravot.am, referring to the Republican MP, Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs Hakob Hakobyan’s scandalous interview.
Responding to the question on price increases, Hakob Hakobyan says in his interview: “You should consider the following: the poor spend less money, consequently, the price rise leads to the fact that the poor will have to spontaneously avoid expensive goods. And the state policy is for protecting the poor from price rises, if the latter affect them much. Now there is no need for the state to address that. Poor people have the habit of avoiding expensive goods. That is a self-defence instinct”.
This view of the Republican MP has been a topic of discussion in social networks for two days now, there was even a proposal to start a movement demanding that Hakob Hakobyan apologizes and puts his mandate aside.
Eduard Sharmazanov has watched the video after this fuss had taken place, and he urges “some people” not to impute expressions to Hakob Hakobyan which he has not made: “Mr. Hakobyan literally says that price rise is bad, and the stratum that is poor and has less income, of course will have to spend less in case of a price rise. What is insulting? Does this mean that the poor must live poorly, or must die?”.
Our interlocutor also noted: “Unlike many others, Hakob Hakobyan supports both the poor and many of our citizens, and never has shown off like others. I recently met with representatives of large families and was informed that Hakob Hakobyan had been sponsoring this family for years”.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
