Armenia`s authorities destroying parliamentarism - opposition MP

ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities have once again "killed" the legislative initiative of the parliamentary opposition to criminalize the recognition of Artsakh as part of another state and to belittle the Armenian Genocide, Artur Khachatryan of the opposition faction Armenia, RA National Assembly, stated on December 5. 

According to him, the behavior of government officials, especially  the ruling majority in the RA National Assembly commissions, is  practically aimed at destroying Armenian parliamentarism.

In turn, the speaker of parliament emphasized that parliamentarism is  destroyed not by the behavior of the ruling majority, but not by the  participation of the opposition in the work of the National Assembly  and its commissions. Not the least role in this is played by the  formation of NA commissions, in particular, the chairmen of the  commissions, which by law they must head, and their non-participation  in the work of the NA Council. "You are not above the law, and you  must keep that in mind. You refuse many procedures, after which you  begin to wonder why this or that issue was not included in the  agenda," Alen Simonyan said. 

In response, Khachatryan recalled that it was the government  representatives who, by their decisions, recalled the heads of NA  commissions from the opposition, although these positions are  enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. As for  participation in commission meetings, as the deputy noted,  discussions on the amendments presented to the Criminal Code the day  before lasted 7 hours with two short breaks of 15 minutes each. He  described the behavior of the parliament leadership as blackmail,  since, guided by its own interests, the ruling majority "destroys"  all legislative initiatives of the opposition.

Simonyan responded by recalling that there are opposition initiatives  that have become laws. The speaker noted that the work of the  National Assembly cannot be selective.

The next plenary meeting of the National Assembly started on December  5, the agenda of which included 36 issues.