Armenian opposition MP Artur Ghazinyan resigns

YEREVAN, July 4. /ARKA/. Armenian MP Artur Ghazinyan from the opposition Hayastan alliance said today he will renounce his mandate.

"I have decided to resign my parliamentary mandate: I consider it to be the right and justified decision in the current situation. I don't want to speak about the reasons now: they are of exclusively political and strategic nature," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Stressing that the ‘resistance’ movement (aimed against the incumbent government and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan) is the only existing platform that can prevent new betrayals and concessions (to Azerbaijan and Turkey), Ghazinyan said that he intends to continue participating in the protests organized by the movement. 

Ghazinyan was a member of the parliamentary standing committee on defense and security issues from August 25, 2021 to March 4, 2022. He was nominated as a candidate for the post of the chairman of this committee more than 10 times, but failed to be elected because of the pro-government MPs strong opposition. Since March 4 he was a member of the committee on state and legal affairs.

On July 1 an emergency session of the parliament dominated by Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party dismissed Ishkhan Saghatelyan from Hayastan alliance as deputy parliament speaker, while Vahe Hakobyan, also from Hayastan, was dismissed as chairman of the committee on economic issues.

Later, an MP from another opposition alliance Pativ Unem Hayk Mamijanyan resigned as deputy chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and Armen Gevorgyan from Hayastan resigned as chairman of the committee on regional and Eurasian Integration.

MP Taguhi Tovmasyan from Pativ Unem refused to resign as chairperson of the committee on human rights and public affairs. -0-