Media: Armenia's ruling party members demand resignation of parliament speaker

Armenia’s ruling party members are demanding the resignation of Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan over the corruption scandal.

"Members of the ruling party demand the resignation of Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan and have put this issue before Pashinyan," Caliber.Az reports, citing an article published by the Armenian Zhokhovurd newspaper.

"In the ruling Civil Pact party, the issue of Alen Simonyan's mandatory resignation is being hotly discussed these days. According to party members, Alen Simonyan and his associates have repeatedly found themselves in the centre of scandals, but remained unpunished. Freenews TV, which is managed by Alen Simonyan's wife, has not paid the monthly payment of 1.5 million drams ($3,700 - ed.) to the Armenian Broadcasting Network for several months. Currently, the debt of Freenews TV company is 23.3 million drams ($57,700 - ed.) Even after these publications, they have not paid the debts of the state, taking advantage of their official status.

In addition, the wife of Alen Simonyan’s brother, Ani Gevorgyan, who found herself at the centre of a corruption scandal, was arrested a few days ago. According to the law enforcement system, she is accused of abuse of power. The ruling party says that this atmosphere of permissiveness created around Alen Simonyan should be put to an end since it harms the team’s rating.

Some party members have also raised the issue of Alen Simonyan's resignation before Nikol Pashinyan. They explain their move as follows. Last April, Alen Simonyan spat at a citizen in the centre of Yerevan and remained unpunished despite the sharp reaction of the public. And now, when it came to corruption, Alen Simonyan should be punished at least now. The fact is that Pashinyan has repeatedly warned his teammates that involvement in corruption will not be forgiven, and now they are forgiving Alen Simonyan," the article says.