Armenian MPs provoke scuffle in parliament (video)

YEREVAN, August 25. /ARKA/. Armenia’s former defense minister Seyran Ohanyan, now an MP from the opposition Hayastan (Armenia) alliance, provoked today another scuffle in the National Assembly by hurling a bottle with water at MP Hayk Sargsyan from the ruling Civil Contract party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The scuffle quickly developed into a punch-up with MPs from both camps hurling bottles at each other.

It all began when speaking from the parliament rostrum Hayk Sargsyan said that all those former Armenian defense ministers, during whose tenure young men were freed from mandatory military service in exchange for bribes or a "call" from a high-ranking official are traitors. The accusation put out Seyran Ohanyan of temper and he hurled a bottle at Sargsyan.

Sargsyan snapped and threw the bottle back. Then several parliamentarians jumped up from their seats and started throwing bottles and other objects at each other, causing a commotion.

Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan tried in vain to calm all down, but had to call the security officers into the session hall, who began to separate the fighting parliamentarians.

After that, Simonyan announced a break until noon and the live broadcast from the session hall was interrupted.

A few minutes later, journalists asked Seyran Ohanyan to comment on the situation. Ohanyan said he was not going to answer questions. "The authorities provoked this clash with their show. I cannot say more than that," he said. --0--