Parliament is holding a confirmation hearing for the candidacy of Vahagn Khachaturyan as President of Armenia

Khachaturyan, the incumbent Minister of High Tech Industry, is nominated for the presidency by the ruling Civil Contract Party. Majority Leader Hayk Konjoryan presented Khachaturyan’s candidacy to lawmakers at today’s session.

The opposition blocs of parliament – Hayastan and Pativ Unem – refused to nominate their candidates and are boycotting the hearing and the subsequent vote.

Vahagn Khachaturyan, answering the question of the MP from the "Civil Contract" faction Zaruhi Batoyan about the role of the president in the issue of the return of POWs, stated that the institute of the President is represented in many places, on international platforms or during meetings with the heads of individual states, he is obliged to raise the issue of POWs.

"You correctly note that in the 90s we faced this problem, and to this we can add missing persons. And it has always been problematic in the sense that there are no clear solutions, especially since they should be the result of negotiations, and as a result of those negotiations, the goals of the opponent should be understood. I know that it is in the center of daily attention, the Government and the relevant responsible persons of the Government are trying to return our POWs by all possible methods. I can tell you that the President of the Republic has what to do there. That institute can be useful. The Institute of the President is represented in many places, on international platforms or during meetings with the heads of individual states, he is obliged to raise the issue of POWs," Khachaturyan said.

Khachaturyan says reducing corruption, increasing competitiveness, developing high technological economy and expanding the regional cooperation are important for the development of the economy.

In response to the question what kind of an economic policy needs to be run for having a competitive state, Mr. Khachaturyan said it’s not a coincidence that when Armenia’s economic future was being discussed after the 2018 Velvet Revolution, he emphasized that only if the corruption decreases, competitiveness increases and alternative becomes more, that would be the best boost for the economic development.

"Now I repeat the same that corruption must decline, and competitiveness, alternatives must increase. These are the best tools that will contribute to Armenia’s economic development," he said.

The parliamentary opposition was not present at the discussion of the issue of the election of the President of the Republic of Armenia in the National Assembly. MP of the parliamentary faction "Civil Contract" Arpine Davoyan asked presidential candidate Vahagn Khachaturyan how he assesses the behavior of the opposition.

"Since I’m non-partisan, I should not enter the field of political assessments. Maybe with this political step they are trying to set the task of illegitimizing the authorities. But there is one important thing: the parliament elected the people. Various desires, imitations attempt to present the authorities in a different way, but it doesn’t matter, because there is an elected government," Khachaturyan said.

Q&A with the Government at the NA

During a Q&A session in the Parliament today, one of the lawmakers raised the issue of new inflationary pressures and asked what social programs are being developed in this respect.

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan assures that the certain devaluation of the national currency is an emotional phenomenon, doesn’t contain anything fundamental, no macro change has taken place.

"Yes, of course, there is a situation in the world, and also there are such inflationary phenomena that I think that we will have targeted tasks for additional measures. And this issue is on the agenda, is being discussed. And measures will be taken based on that situation," the deputy PM said.

The lawmaker also voiced the issue that the gas tariff is increasing from April, and in response the deputy PM reminded that the gas tariff is adjusted by calculating the calories from April 1. "It means that in other equal terms, in case of the same amount of consumption, the money to be paid will not change. Today the price in Europe was 1400, if I am not mistaken, in case when that is 165 dollars on our border. In this respect, I think that the pressures will be balanced. But, of course, if the relative coordinates of this situation emerge, we will understand where it is necessary to carry out additional targeted assistance, and we will do that. I think that the reserve fund of the budget is enough to finance such measures," Mher Grigoryan said.

Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan referred to the new appointments in the General Staff of the Armed Forces. 

Minister Papikyan said that taking into consideration the developments in the region and around the world the reforms in the military are a necessity and delaying is inadmissible.

He said that the acting chief of staff has all legal grounds for decision-making and issuing orders.

"I think we didn’t bring any threats with this and we aren’t planning to. Moreover, everything is aimed for swiftly having a more motivated command staff, and this is a signal to all officers under the authority of the ministry of defense. All worthy officers will have the opportunity of holding high positions regardless of their family connections or other ties," Papikyan said.

In light of the military actions in Ukraine, of course, many of our compatriots intend and are trying to get out of the zone of these actions. At the same time, when we say compatriots, we mean both citizens of the Republic of Armenia and citizens of other countries. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan, answering the question of the MP from the "Armenia" faction Artsvik Minasyan.

Mirzoyan informed that the Armenian Embassy in Ukraine continues to work. According to him, the Embassy in Kyiv is one of the few that stays in Kiev. Mirzoyan added that more than 1 500 calls have been received so far.

"Of course, in such a large number there will be citizens who tried to establish communication and couldn't. For that a hotline has been set up in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as by e-mail and by phone, our employees call back and provide consultations. We have also agreed with the neighboring states of Ukraine - Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania and even Hungary. Our diplomatic relations with Hungary have been suspended, but I must honestly say, to their credit, that they are doing everything to support. Where we have embassies, diplomats from the capitals were sent to several cities bordering Ukraine, where we don't have, for example, in Hungary, a separate diplomat was sent, a separate diplomat was sent to Moldova, all these diplomats have the task to assist RA citizens crossing the border, our compatriots, to organize consultations, to assist, to organize their return."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan positively assesses the second meeting of the Armenian and Turkish special representatives held in Geneva.

"I assess the second meeting of the representatives of Armenia and Turkey as positive. You can read everything in the statement made by the representatives. The parties reaffirmed that the process takes place without preconditions, that the end result of the process is the normalization of relations, and, of course, for us, the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border”, ARMENPRESS reports Mirzoyan as saying, answering the question of MP from “Civil Contract” Party Sargis Khandayan.

FM Mirzoyan mentioned that during the second meeting the discussion was much more specific than the during first meeting.

"At the same time, I think we all understand that it is difficult to expect very tangible results even from the second meeting, a process that must provide solutions to the problems of centuries and decades," Mirzoyan concluded.

Other News

• On March 2, the Steering Committee Meeting of the Armenia/Council of Europe Action Plan for 2019-2022 took place in a hybrid format.