RFE/RL – New Armenian Parliament Meets, Elects Speaker

Ruben Rubinian’s election became a forgone conclusion when the party’s governing board headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian unexpectedly designated him for the post in late June. Pashinian has since not given a clear reason for removing the previous parliament speaker and his longtime political ally, Alen Simonian. Rubinian served as one of Simonian’s deputies in the former National Assembly.

The new assembly convened almost two months after parliamentary elections won by Civil Contract, according to their official results rejected by the Armenian opposition as fraudulent. Lawmakers representing the two opposition blocs that won parliament seats repeated the fraud claims during the session that began on Sunday.

“Yes, Mr. Rubinian, the opposition did not win the June 7 elections … but the incumbent authorities didn’t win either. The June 7 elections were one of the most disgraceful in Armenia’s history,” charged Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leading member of former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance.

“This parliament has a very serious problem with its legitimacy, and so does the government formed by this parliament,” he said.

For his part, Rubinian, who was elected only by fellow Civil Contract parliamentarians, accused the opposition of refusing to “accept the people’s choice.”

At the same, time he urged it to end, together with the ruling party, what he called a widely held belief that the Armenian parliament has been a “place for pointless and fruitless arguments, slander, and insults” and that the new National Assembly “will be even worse in that sense than the previous one.” To that end, the two rival camps should commit to “very sharp but polite debates” that would not go beyond “the bounds of human decency,” added Rubinian.

“If you do not accept my proposal and have other suggestions or think that we should continue to follow the long-outdated, repeatedly beaten and trampled path, then Civil Contract is more than ready for it in the toughest sense of the word,” he warned.

Like Simonian, Rubinian repeatedly attacked and insulted opposition lawmakers while chairing sessions of the former parliament that occasionally degenerated into shouting matches and even brawls. The oppositionists claimed that their pro-government colleagues deliberately provoked such incidents on Pashinian’s orders.

Pashinian’s party now has 64 seats in the 105-member parliament. Hayastan and billionaire Samvel Karapetian’s Strong Armenia hold 12 and 29 seats respectively.