Ashotyan: speech of Armenian president came as response to blackmail, ignorance and stupidity

He said Tsarukyan, a as a political actor, is evil for the country. “This is not only position of Serzh Sargsyan, the party leader, this is only the position of the party’s council and executive board,” Ashotyan was quoted by Novosti-Armenia as saying after the party’s session. “Two hundred people answered unanimously to the blackmail, ignorance, shallow speeches and stupidity.” 

Ashotyan said that his patience has boiled over long ago, and “today the party’s patience has run out”. 

«Prosperous Armenia party was established as a political project of Robert Kocharyan, the second Armenian president, to divide the power resource and ensure the presence of the second president on the country's political arena,» Ashotyan said. 

«But there is one very important difference between Kocharyan and Tsarukyan – Robert Kocharyan is a politician and it is insulting for statehood to equate Tsarukyan with him, since our country was ruled by Kocharyan over one decade. 

It would also be insulting to equate him with Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first Armenian president.» 

Khosrov Harutyunyan, an MP from the Republican Party of Armenia, on his side, stressed that President Sargsyan is a person of restraint and tolerance, «sometimes excessive tolerance». 

«But things have already stepped all the bounds – when political struggle loses its logical content and even creates risks for national security, I think, the country president ought to speak on the matter,» he said. 

In his speech at Thursday's session, President Sargsyan also said that Tsarukyan was present at only 4 sessions out of 145 of the National Assembly in 2013-2014 and that MPs from the Republican Party of Armenia will take necessary steps «to get out of this absurd situation». 

Hrayr Tovmasyan, head of the National Assembly's staff, told journalists that this process is within the parliament speaker's competence. 

«There was one case in the National Assembly's history when one MP was stripped from his parliamentary seat for frequent absence from sessions,» he said. 

Hovhannes Sahakyan, another Republican MP, explained that if a member of the National Assembly misses more than half of sessions, he/she is withdrawn from the parliament. 

One week ago, Gagik Tsarukyan, speaking at a conference his party has initiated for nongovernmental organizations, said that it is necessary to make the authorities to feel responsibility for the current situation and to make every effort with the help of the growing nationwide movement to get other leaders at the next national elections. 

Prosperous Armenia is the second largest force in the parliament controlling 36 seats. It was part of coalition governments from 2007 to 2012. Now it positions itself as an alternative political force..----0----- -