RA NA Committee rejects opposition-submitted draft statement on  occasion of 80th anniversary of victory in WWII

ArmInfo. The RA NA " I have Honor" faction authored the RA NA draft statement on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, which was debated at the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

The Secretary of the NA " I Have Honor" faction, Tigran Abrahamyan,  spoke about the necessity of adopting the statement. According to the  substantiation, the necessity of adopting the statement stems from  the victory over fascism in the Patriotic War and the participation  of the Armenian people in it. It was noted that this year marks the  80th anniversary of the victory and various symbolic events are being  held in many countries on this occasion. The statement notes that 80  years ago Nazi Germany was defeated, but, unfortunately,  manifestations of fascism, xenophobia and intolerance not only exist  today, but are also actively practiced and periodically brought to  life in different corners of the world.

"We are convinced that the civilized humanity should say a resolute  'no' to any manifestation of fascism and Nazism in the 21st century,"  the keynote rapporteur underscored at the end of his speech.  "The  statement, the meaning of which was supposed to unite around  historical truth, actually becomes a dividing line; it does not unite  political forces and the public around the idea of fighting fascism,"  the member of the Committee Hasmik Hakobyan opined in her co-report.  According to her, there was no precedent for having a statement text  in the newly independent Armenian Parliament, but there have always  been statement texts on behalf of the country's Prime Minister,  President, and the NA President. Hasmik Hakobyan proposed her  colleagues to oppose or abstain from voting on the statement.

The Committee Chair Sargis Khandanyan touched upon the parliamentary  tradition of adopting statements and noted that from that point of  view there is no precedent for adopting a statement on such  occasions.  There are other institutions in that regard. The National  Assembly of the Republic of Armenia has adopted 14 statements during  its existence, which mainly related to urgent events: The  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, aggression against Armenia; the National  Assembly has never adopted a statement on an anniversary event.  In  their speeches the MPs spoke about some historical events, in this  context, the expedience of adopting the statement. The deputies of  the Civil Contract Faction voiced opinions that the document could be  a statement text of Armenia, it has nothing to do with the  declaration of independent Armenia. The representatives of the  opposition Armenia and With Honor factions also presented  counterarguments and insisted that it is necessary to emphasize the  role of the Armenian people in the victories.  The Committee by  voting made a negative conclusion on the draft statement.