The presidential candidate, Armen Sargsyan answered to the questions of the journalists after the meeting with “Yelq” bloc members. He thanked for the attention towards him even before becoming a candidate. He said that rumors evolve around him, questions arise – Vazgen Sargsyan, Amulsar and etc., if he becomes a president, it is very important for the society to have a correct opinion about him. He said he was satisfied with the meeting with oppositional “Yelq” bloc, they had an open discussion: “I know for sure that “Yelq” has announced they will vote against me. I respect their decision but it does not mean that if I am elected as the president I will not work with them, will not work with the people who express opposing opinion.”
To the statement implying that the Constitution envisages for the President of the Republic of Armenia to have only Armenian citizenship, meanwhile “Eurasia House International” mentions that he was a British citizen in 2014, Armen Sargsyan responded: “The issue is that you look for a problem, there is no problem. Yes, I have been a British citizen. In 2000, when I was dismissed from the position of the ambassador of the Republic of Armenia, I applied for citizenship from Great Britain and received it in 2002. After that, I withdrew from my citizenship in 2011. I have been the member of dozens of companies, organization boards, and now as well. There has been recorded an information that I am a British, and in some places, it says I am Armenian. I have not given an announcement that I am leaving to “Financial Times” after I resigned in 2011. In all those places I have been accepted as Armen Sargsyan and not as a British or Armenian citizen.”
He informed that “Eurasia House International” is founded by him in the early 2000s, in 2010 the organization ceased functioning: “If you look through “Davos” now, you will find that I am a British citizen. It is not that as soon as someone resigns in Britain they erase his or her name from everywhere.”
On why he resigned, Armen Sargsyan asked – why do you not ask why I accepted? “For my activity it was necessary to travel, to be in different countries, there was an issue of business also security. I resigned because I did not need it any longer, and not that I thought in 2011 that you would change the Constitution and I would become an ambassador and then a candidate. That question does not exist for me.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
