Presenting the impeachment motion on Monday, a senior Hayastan lawmaker, Artsvik Minasian, pointed to Simonian’s disparaging comments about Armenian prisoners of war and other statements that carry “risks for our foreign policy.”
Minasian clearly alluded to Simonian’s recent claim that Russia sought to restore Azerbaijani control over Nagorno-Karabakh through peace proposals made before last year’s war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the “baseless” claim on December 3. It argued that the peace plan jointly drafted by Russia, the United States and France stipulated that Karabakh’s internationally recognized status would be determined through a future referendum.
Simonian, who is a leading political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, was also caught on camera saying recently that many of the Armenian soldiers taken prisoner by Azerbaijan “laid down their weapons and ran away” during hostilities. He claimed that their relatives have not protested lately because they realize that the soldiers are deserters.
The remarks sparked uproar in Armenia, with angry relatives of POWs staging street protests and opposition and civil society members demanding the speaker’s resignation. Pashinian’s Civil Contract party did not disavow or disapprove of them.
Predictably, a lawmaker representing the party made clear that it will reject the impeachment motion also backed by Pativ Unem, the other opposition bloc holding seats in the Armenian parliament. Vahagn Aleksanian accused the parliamentary opposition of trying to earn “cheap political dividends” with initiatives that are doomed to fail.
Simonian also scoffed at the demands and stood by his statements. “Your political ineptness is at its peak. As for me, I have gotten everything right so far,” he wrote in a Facebook comment addressed to the opposition.