Dominant NA faction fails secret vote on early termination of RA TV  and Radio Commission member`s powers 

ArmInfo.  At the February 13 session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, the ruling Civil Contract faction failed to hold a secret ballot vote on a draft resolution to terminate the mandate of Hakob Hakobyan, a member of the Television and Radio Commission.

As Narek Babayan, head of the parliamentary Counting Commission,  noted in his speech, only 28 out of 107 MPs participated in the vote  and voted for Hakobyan's resignation, thus retaining his seat on the  Television and Radio Commission. It should be noted that the  initiative to terminate his mandate was put forward by the opposition  Armenia faction. Faction Secretary Artsvik Minasyan, in particular,  noted that Hakob Hakobyan, while a member of the Television and Radio  Commission, made political assessments regarding the ARF  Dashnaktsutyun party in an interview with the news website 1in.am,  and these assessments were accompanied by incitement to hatred. "What  right does a member of an independent state body, who is  constitutionally obligated to demonstrate neutrality and restraint,  have to make such assessments?" Minasyan asked. He added that,  according to Parts 5 and 6 of Article 197 of the Constitution of the  Republic of Armenia, members of the Television and Radio Commission  cannot be members of any party or otherwise engage in political  activity during their term of office. They must exercise political  restraint in their public speeches. If any of these conditions are  violated, the powers of a member of the Television and Radio  Commission are terminated by the National Assembly by at least a  three-fifths majority vote of the total number of deputies.

However, Hakob Hakobyan himself has denied the charges against him.  He emphasized that he is not an opponent of the ARF and added that he  spoke of the party solely in a historical context. Hakob Hakobyan  outlined his position and discussed various historical and political  realities. In his opinion, correctness should not mean silence or  carefully concealing one's views. "The call for restraint should not  force us to conceal our understanding of history, to be afraid to  speak about corruption-political, economic, and patriotic-because  patriotism can also be corrupt. Moreover, in my interview, I spoke  not about the activities of the ARF, but about a tragic period in  Armenian history," Hakob Hakobyan emphasized.