YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Armenia’s parliament controlled by the ruling Civil Contract party voted on Friday to dismiss one of its deputy speakers and the chairman of its economic committee affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan bloc.

The bloc condemned the decision and said it will give up other leadership positions in the National Assembly in protest.

Speaking before the vote, Civil Contract lawmakers again said that deputy speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan and the committee chairman, Vahe Hakobyan, must be dismissed because of boycotting sessions of the parliament and its standing committees.

Civil Contract’s Arusyak Julhakyan also accused Saghatelyan of “provoking clashes” and “using hate speech” during antigovernment rallies launched by the Armenian opposition on May 1.

Saghatelyan, Hakobyan and the 33 other deputies representing Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, began the boycott ahead of the daily rallies aimed toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. They have said that they have no plans yet to return to the parliament.

In a joint statement, Hayastan and Pativ Unem condemned Saghatelyan’s and Hakobyan’s dismissal and portrayed it as another sign of a “deepening political crisis” in Armenia.

“With this behavior the current authorities once again demonstrated that they are concerned solely with posts, engaged in persecutions, devoid of any ability to confront challenges facing the country, lack legitimacy and do not represent Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),” said the statement. “In these circumstances, their exit is inevitable.”

Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan said ahead of the vote that the pro-government majority in the National Assembly is open to considering other opposition candidates for the two posts.
“We will not nominate any candidates,” Saghatelyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service shortly after his ouster. “Moreover, our colleagues will likely give up the other administrative posts occupied by the opposition [in the parliament.]”

Armen Gevorgyan, a Hayastan lawmaker heading the parliament committee on “regional and Eurasian integration,” was quick to tender his resignation. He said he cannot go against “clear rules of political, public and human ethics.”

Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanyan similarly resigned as deputy chairman of the parliament committee on foreign relations.

Civil Contract has not yet carried out its threats to strip all opposition lawmakers of their parliament seats for absenteeism. Senior representatives of the ruling party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan say it has not yet made a final decision on that.

Saghatelyan again scoffed at those threats. He said the opposition deputies themselves may decide to leave the parliament.

Hayastan and Pativ Unem decided to scale back the protests earlier this month after failing to unseat Pashinyan. But they pledged to continue to fight for his removal from power. Their next rally was scheduled for Friday evening.

The two opposition forces accuse Pashinyan of planning to make sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan that would place Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijani control and jeopardize the very existence of Armenia.