Armenian First President Calls for Alen Simonyan’s Resignation After Spit on Diaspora-Armenian

Armenia’s First President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan is calling for the dismissal of National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan for spitting on a Diaspora-Armenian in Yerevan.

Ter-Petrosyan wrote an article that’s been published on ilur.am, where he states that the ruling party, Civil Contract Faction of the National Assembly (NA) is obligated to launch the matter of NA speaker Alen Simonyan's dismissal.

The former president calls the incident that took place two days ago, “disgusting”.

“When a [Diaspora Armenian] young man saw RA National Assembly president Alen Simonyan surrounded by bodyguards on the street, he loudly called him a ‘traitor.’ Simonyan, calmly breaking through the chain of bodyguards, approached the young man with ‘quiet steps’ and fully spat in his face, which, by the way, he proudly confirmed in his explanations after the incident,” wrote the First President.

Ter-Petrosyan describes spitting as vulgar. “When it comes from the lips of one of the highest state officials, then it is already the end of the state,” he wrote.

He writes that the word traitor is not a domestic profanity or a personal insult. He describes it as a purely political assessment, “which should be not countered by vulgar speech or spit, but by an appropriate and reasonable response, especially since the authorities possess unlimited means of information and propaganda.”

“There has never been a leader of a more or less democratic state in the world who was not labeled a traitor by his political opponents. It may seem surprising — for example, I recall even outstanding US presidents such as Roosevelt were declared traitors by their political opponents for ceding Eastern European countries to the Soviet Union, Truman—for not preventing the communistization of China, and Clinton—for weakening his country's military power due to courtship with Russia. None of them spat in the face of those who labeled them as traitors, but countered—personally or by their supporters—all such accusations with valid arguments,” he recalled.

He calls Simonyan’s act unforgivable.

“By the way, unforgivable is not just a word in this case, but it is assumed that the National Assembly, and the latter’s Civil Contract Faction, in order not to lose its standing before the people once and for all, is obligated to launch the matter of Alen Simonyan's dismissal [as NA Speaker]. I am not exaggerating at all. His action is the biggest damage done to the standing of our statehood, which can be eliminated only at the price of the latter’s removal from office. This is the only way to restore the honor of our people before the international community,” he concluded.

He urged the media to spread his article and urged the entire society, political forces—to join his initiative purely through legal means and not via protests.