Opposition MPs Come to Parliament to Vote Against EEU: MP Claims EEU as Russian Annexation of Armenia

Today, a draft bill about customs regulations was discussed during an extraordinary session in the National Assembly. The purpose of the bill is to comply Armenian legislation to Eurasian Economic Union norms, which has already been ratified by the National Assembly.

The non-ruling parties Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia Party, Rule of Law Party, and Heritage Party are continuing to boycott the National Assembly’s work due to yesterday’s refusal by the NA Speaker to conduct a session about recent attacks against opposition figures. Nevertheless, Heritage faction MPs Alexander Arzumanyan and Zaruhi Postanjyan and Armenian National Congress faction MP Nikol Pashinyan were present at today's session.

Alexander Arzumanyan stated that he is vehemently against Armenia’s EEU membership, and is participating in the session in order to vote against all EEU related draft bills. According to him, the boycott is currently noncommittal. Heritage faction MP Zaruhi Postanjyan also stated she came to vote against the EEU related draft bill.

“Russia’s economy is already plunging and Armenia has no business associating with that. Armenia’s annexation into this union is nothing more than a road to destruction,” said Postanjyan.

After the vote, NA Speaker Galust Sahakyan asked to turnoff Zaruhi Postanjyan’s microphone stating that “at this point you’re just provoking.” The draft passed with 70 for and 5 against.