Head of opposition faction in Armenian Parliament denies his mandate

Arthur Vanetsyan, the head of the "I have the honour" oppositional parliamentary faction, has announced his resignation of his parliamentary powers and the withdrawal of his "Fatherland" Party from the parliament. According to his version, the parliament is no longer capable to defend the interests of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that since April 25, supporters of the opposition have been holding their disobedience actions demanding the resignation of the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, from his post. In the evening on June 18, an oppositional rally held in Yerevan accused the Premier of a failed policy.

Arthur Vanetsyan, an MP and the head of the oppositional faction "I have the honour", decided to reject his parliamentary mandate. His resignation statement has already been submitted to the parliament, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Tsovinar Khachatryan, the press secretary of the parliament chairman.

Mr Vanetsyan has explained his decision in his Facebook* page: "Our voters gave us their mandate to stop the catastrophic actions of incumbent authorities, to get the country out of this situation, but this parliament has ceased to be a platform for achieving this goal."

The council of the "Fatherland" Party has decided to continue its activities outside the parliament.

"The motivation for our participating in the 2021 elections was in our desire to make every effort to ensure stability in the country, so that Armenia and Artsakh (the self-name of Nagorno-Karabakh, – note of the "Caucasian Knot") were safe, and the quality of life of our citizens improved," Arthur Vanetsyan has stated, adding that that the MP's mandate was never an end in itself for him, but just a tool to serve his country and statehood, a tool that can no longer be used for this purpose.

*On March 21, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities of the "Meta" Company (that owns the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) in Russia because of its alleged extremist activities.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 21, 2022 at 08:19 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.