Today, the National Assembly discussed the candidacy proposed by the opposition party 'Strong Armenia' for the position of Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs.
'Strong Armenia' has nominated Hayk Farmanyan for the position of Chairman of the Financial and Budgetary Committee.
Farmanyan is an economist by profession and previously worked at the State Revenue Committee. He stated today that he was dismissed in 2019 after the revolution, justifying that he was not one of their own and needed to leave. Farmanyan even challenged this decision in court.
About 40 deputies queued to ask questions to Hayk Farmanyan. Deputies from the ruling party directed various questions at the opposition candidate, including those related to his years of service at the State Revenue Committee.
They even expected evaluations from him regarding statements made by RT's chief editor Margarita Simonyan and one of the Kremlin's most famous propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov: 'Do you consider this statement directed against Armenia or not?'
'I do not welcome and clearly condemn all statements that may offend the Armenian people and do not align with the interests of the Republic of Armenia,' he responded.
There were also questions regarding the return of illegally acquired property. Hayk Farmanyan initially stated that this is done to punish people and that everything should be left as it is, continuing from a zero point and not returning to those topics.
Later, in response to questions from his colleagues, he stated that the general position of the team is that any theft is condemnable.
Farmanyan's statement was followed by applause from the ruling party, and there was even a remark that he could have been sitting in the ruling faction.
During the Q&A session, the 'Armenia' faction was not particularly active. The leader of the faction, Anna Grigoryan, informed 'Azatutyun' that they have a decision to vote in favor of all opposition candidates, while they will not participate in the voting for any candidates from the ruling party.
The leader of the ruling faction, Aryusyak Manavazyan, insisted that there is still no decision regarding whether to elect him or not.
After discussing candidates for the positions of committee chairs, the parliament will move on to the issue of forming a temporary ethics committee.
