“We’ve ordered you to stop the intake of water from Sevan all these years, but because of your worries, you always voted in favor of it. Now you’ve come here to discuss your worries? Do you think any of us are stupid? You aren’t allowing us to speak and now we’re being forced to speak about it in this manner,” environmentalist Silva Adamyan said, reprimanding a parliamentarian during a discussion regarding problems with Lake Sevan with the committee for territorial administration, local self-administration, agriculture, and environmentalism. She did not like the limits placed on people to speak, and how parliamentarians were given the opportunity to speak first.
RPA parliamentarian Khosrov Harutyunyan initially tried to explain in a calm manner that representatives of non-governmental organizations will always be heard and that their opinions have always been taken into consideration during parliamentary discussions.
Silva Adamyan did not calm down. Khosrov Harutyunyan got angry and, in order to suppress his anger, left the hall.
The president of the committee, Vardevan Grigoryan, interfered. “When the issue of Sevan was brought up, we invited all NGOs and they even were given more rights than parliamentarians. The issue of water intake was discussed twice in this council. NGOs were invited both times.”
Still, Silva Adamyan did not calm down. “You’ve stayed the same, everything stayed the same. Nothing has changed,” the environmentalist said.
Nelly Grigoryan
