Henrik Hartenyan, a member of the Yerevan City council representing the ruling My Step faction, will resign, another My Step councilman Armen Yeghiazaryan told reporters on Monday following an emergency meeting of the faction.
The announcement comes after Hartenyan posted a photo of Sara Tovmasyan, the alleged daughter of Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan, in a Facebook story, writing: "This is the Facebook account of H. Tovmasyan's daughter. Folks, forward!"
“Yesterday the faction issued a statement condemning the incident. During today’s discussion the faction members reaffirmed their position on the issue that it is not in line with our system of values and goes against our principles. Adhering to these principles, we asked Mr. Hartenyan to lay down his mandate. He agreed," he said.
When asked how he justified his move, Yeghiazaryan replied: “I think that is not so important now; the motives, the reasons and the explanations are not important. Let me not raise them, I think he himself can coffer comments. Eventually, the reasons were not the matter, but the phenomenon,” the councilmember said.
In a statement on Sunday, the My Step faction said it “strongly condemns any manifestation of hate speech" and pomised to issue a statement after an emergency meeting on Monday.
