Gagik Tsarukyan: There are victims…
Talking to journalists after the National Assembly sitting on June 10, Chairman of the Prosperous Party of Armenia (PAP), Gagik Tsarukyan, did not refute the rumours that he had prohibited his fellow teammates, including secretary of PAP faction Naira Zohrabyan, to criticize the authorities. However, it did not prevent Mr Tsarukyan from commending Naira Zohrabyan.
"I would like our parliament to have more lawmakers like Naira Zohrabyan," said Tsarukyan.
Asked why the party had stopped criticizing the authorities and whether the reason was that PAP MPs had gone on vacation, Gagik Tsarukyan said, "I do not think that people responsible before voters have any right to take vacation."
In recent weeks, this was the second time the PAP chairman had attended a parliament sitting. As usual he left the hall.
"Enough of you. Ask me 2-3 questions each time," he told journalists when they asked the PAP leader to comment on the recent deadly incident in front of the house of former governor of Syunik province.
"There are eye-witnesses, victims, families... Law enforcers will investigate the incident and punish those guilty for the murder," he said.
Avetik Budaghyan, a former mayoral candidate in Goris, was killed in the result of a June 1 shootout outside the house of Surik Khachatryan, a former governor of Syunik province.
Nikolay Abrahamyan, a relative and bodyguard of Surik Khachatryan, and Artak Budaghyan, the brother of Avetik Budaghyan and a commander of a military unit in Karabakh, were wounded in the gunfight. Syunik governor's son Tigran Khachatryan and his bodyguard Zarzand Nikoghosyan were arrested last in connection with Budaghyan's murder. On June 6, Khachatryan was relieved of his post in accordance with his resignation papers.
