ArmInfo. Violence is unacceptable and unjustifiable. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan said this during a briefing on August 25, commenting on what happened in the sitting room of the National Assembly.
"In the event of a repetition of such incidents, the question of excluding journalists from the envisaged box is under discussion and, in all likelihood, will be revised," said the NA Speaker. According to Simonyan, this issue was discussed together with colleagues. "In such situations, it is not worth expelling journalists from the box, although there are concerns related to their safety," he said. However, in this regard, Simonyan drew attention to the fact that in international practice, for example, when a person is beaten or he falls, as a rule, they change the frame out of respect for his honor and good reputation. In conclusion, Alen Simonyan noted that the most important thing is to avoid the repetition of such cases. Let's remind that today from early morning the activity of the legislative body of the country is periodically interrupted due to fights between the lawmakers from the ruling force and oppositional blocs. The first incident occurred during a speech by Hayk Sargsyan, a lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract force, who accused all former defense ministers of the country as traitors, since they "freed citizens from compulsory military service for money." A deputy from the Armenia bloc, former defense minister Seyran Ohanyan reacted to this statement, who shouted something from his seat.
Sargsyan did not like this and, using the slang lexicon, turned to Ohanyan, the latter, in response to such behavior of the lawmaker from the ruling force, threw a bottle at Sargsyan. A fight broke out in parliament, the security forces had to forcefully separate the lawmakers, who staged "bottle battles". A break was announced in the RA Parliament. However, after the break, the parliament did not have time to resume its activities when a new fight broke out. Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party kicked and punched a lawmaker from the Armenia bloc Vahe Hakobyan.
First, the lawmaker from the "Civil Contract" Vahagn Aleksanyan got up from his place, who went down to the rostrum and kicked Hakobyan, then the blows came from other MPs from the ruling party Hayk Sargsyan and Vahe Ghalumyan. Moreover, the footage shows how the latter strikes from behind. The live broadcast was again suspended, and the journalists were deprived of the opportunity to receive information about what was happening in the hall. It is not yet clear that Gegham Nazaryan was injured during the first or second fight. Note that violence was also used against media representatives who carry out professional activities in the National Assembly. The parliamentary security service, using disproportionate force and obstructing the professional activities of journalists, took the media representatives out of a special room reserved for them, from where they cover the activities of the legislative body. Note that for the second day the parliament has been working in the mode of fighting without rules. The opposition accuses the ruling force of torpedoing the activities of the parliament, and those, in turn, the opposition.