Opposition demands unseating of pro-government MP

ArmInfo.  Non-partisan member of the Armenian parliament Taguhi Tovmasyan demands that the secretary of the ruling Civil Contract faction Artur Hovhannisyan resign from his mandate in connection with his offensive statements addressed to her. She voiced this demand in a publication on her  Facebook account. 

At the same time, she noted that she considers her earlier demand to  the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan to  oblige Artur Hovhannisyan to take a drug test every time he visits  the country's legislative body to be legal. In this vein, Tovmasyan  recalled that according to the new legislative order, from August 1,  2025, all doctors in the republic must undergo such a procedure.

"Therefore, I believe that what the authorities require from a doctor  should also be mandatory for a deputy, minister and other officials.  Artur Hovhannisyan's behavior clearly goes beyond the ethical  standards of a deputy of the National Assembly. Sobriety and decency  are the most important characteristics of adequacy, without which the  state apparatus is in danger," the deputy emphasized.

As the oppositionist noted, her proposal was based on the interests  of protecting the institution of the National Assembly, in response  to which there were no meaningful counterarguments or political  assessments, but dirty insults, passing off their own depravity as a  model. Touching upon the initiative to create an Ethics Commission,  the deputy expressed her conviction that she would not show the  political will to hold the secretary of the ruling faction  accountable, and therefore all efforts in this direction are  meaningless.

"It is obvious that neither the creation of the Ethics Commission nor  yesterday's apology closes the page on this shameful behavior. Artur  Hovhannisyan crossed the red line, which is not the end point, but a  precedent that cannot go unpunished. Therefore, I believe that he  should resign. Artur Hovhannisyan cannot avoid legal responsibility,"  the oppositionist emphasized.

Tovmasyan also drew attention to the silence maintained by Armenian  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which, according to her, is an  argument in favor of legitimizing this dangerous precedent. "Artur  Hovhannisyan must receive a "farewell SMS", otherwise it will turn  out that the state and all the values and moral norms underlying it  are worthless," the non-partisan MP summarized.

Hovhannisyan tried to prevent a briefing by Taguhi Tovmasyan, who  raised the issue of torture of prisoners of war held in Azerbaijani  captivity in a conversation with journalists. In this regard, she  called for the ruling faction secretary to be checked "for drug use,"  calling his behavior indecent. Artur Hovhannisyan responded to this  statement, calling her immoral and calling for her to be tested "for  a sexually transmitted infection to find out how the deputy got four  apartments in the city center."