Republican deputy Hermine Naghdalyan was in an unpleasant situation at the press conference on Friday for a long time because of Gyumri mayor, Vardan Ghukasyan.
The event took place at the “Hayeli” club with guests Hermine Naghdalyan and deputy of the “Heritage” parliamentary faction, Anahit Bakhshyan. The latter said that Armenia is not a lawful state, and as proof of that Bakhshyan mentioned the “courageous acts” of the mayor of Gyumri and his son. According to Bakhshyan, a moral person should resign after all that. Naghdalyan tried to defend her partisan and said:
“As far as the event tied to the mayor of Gyumri is concerned, we have to wait until the investigation is over and until the court has its say, so that we can have substantial information and to know what our evaluations should be.”
But isn’t Naghdalyan offended by the fact that the mayor of Gyumri is “ruining the reputation” of the Republican Party?
“The mayor of Gyumri also has rather great virtues and he can show those virtues in real life, through his acts. If it is proven that the crimes that he has committed are brought into the light, there will also be a political evaluation and the Republican Party will most definitely give that evaluation. Let’s just be a little patient,” said Naghdalyan.
Interestingly, Mrs. Naghdalyan proposes to wait until the “crimes that he (mayor of Gyumri-R.T.) has committed are brought into the light”, affirming that the crimes have been committed. So, it is interesting to know just what the most important virtue of Vardan Ghukasyan is that the Republican deputy mentioned in her speech. Naghdalyan had this to say in response to the question as to whether the “paper of the crazy” (note given denoting one unfit for military service, etc.) fit in with Ghukasyan’s virtues.
“Does he have it? The virtue is probably that the people of Gyumri love him and vote for him.”
Anyway…has the Republican Party discussed the issue of removing Vardan Ghukasyan, Surik Khachatryan, Marzbed of the Syunik Marz, and such people from the party? In response to this Naghdalyan said:
“Ghukasyan’s issue, as I said, will become a topic for discussion when we have the legal grounds for that. The same goes for all of us. Not Ghukasyan, because he is a special person, or Khachatryan, because he is also a special person. Each person who is a member of a given party must be dealt with by the given party.”
Perhaps the Republicans also understand quite well that the above-mentioned people are discrediting the party, but the Republican Party needs these kinds of people because they are the ones “bringing in” the votes during elections. In response to this observation and the question as to whether there is hope for getting rid of these people after the presidential elections, Naghdalyan said the following:
“There are people in each party. Those people come and go. “Cleansing” goes on in each party; parties are cleaned out. There is a time for that too. The Republican Party is one big family and it is like a big organism; there are different things in that organism, but let’s look at the lot and what reigns supreme.”
She informed journalists that she is not an “expert on Vardan Ghukasyan”. But the issue concerning Ghukasyan was not limited to that. As you may recall, Republican deputy Armen Ashotyan had proposed to create a chapel in the territory near the National Assembly. Since there are more women deputies in the newly formed parliament now, a question came up as to whether women would propose to open a beauty salon in the National Assembly. The speakers at the “Hayeli” club informed that they have no such intention. Republican Naghdalyan was asked if she didn’t like the “idea of the chapel, especially since the party had someone who did the blessing.” In response to this Naghdalyan asked: “Who is it?” The journalists informed her that the Republican mayor of Gyumri, Vardan Ghukasyan, is also a well-known “preacher”.
As it is known, certain people with no understanding of “human rights” and who have violated those rights several times have appeared in the standing committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Issues and a large part of them are from Naghdalyan’s beloved party. How are the Republicans going to work with those people? According to Naghdalyan, “each deputy is elected and since he is elected, then we have to work with them.”
Whereas Naghdalyan was unique in that she was in an unpleasant situation, Bakhshyan was unique with her naïve questions and answers. As is known, Anahit Bakhshyan, representative of the so-called oppositional “Heritage”, was until recently principal of one of the schools of Yerevan and was forced to work with the existing authorities. Can we say that the authorities have shown certain tolerance towards her (since they have tolerated the oppositional school principal)? In response to this, Bakhshyan gave an amazingly naïve answer.
“What were they (authorities-R.T.) supposed to do to me? Should they have fired me?” Bakhshyan asked, and after receiving a “yes”, continued answering naively. “Why? I have not done anything against the law. I have neither given nor taken any bribes.”
So, these authorities tolerate honest people. In response to this observation, “Heritage” representative Anahit Bakhshyan said the following:
“Indeed, indeed.”
Here is when Naghdalyan, who was rather hurt by the journalists’ questions, cheered up and mentioned: “Nevertheless, the country is not that unlawful.” Bakhshyan agreed with her, while Naghdalyan went on: “Here is what we’ll do. There are many illegalities in today’s reality. Each of us sees the illegalities and wants to get rid of them.” In fact, let us note that Mrs. Bakhshyan contradicted herself during the press conference on Friday. The fact of the matter is that the deputies of the “Heritage” faction, including Mrs. Bakhshyan, have signed a declaration by which they call on releasing political prisoners Alexander Arzumanyan, Zhirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan. “Heritage” is certain that the cases brought against them are false but, according to Bakhshyan, our country is not that unlawful and the authorities “tolerate honest people.” It turns out that if we go along with what Bakhshyan says, the three above-mentioned persons are dishonest.