Levon Kocharyan’s assistant files lawsuit against National Assembly staff

Artur Sukoyan, an assistant to Levon Kocharyan, an MP from the Armenia faction, has filed a lawsuit against the National Assembly Staff, asking the court to require it to allow him into the parliament building. He was banned from entering parliament on October 29 following an incident with Vahagn Aleksanyan, an MP.

“…Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I simply put Vahagn in his place, after which he chose to surround himself with women, and only then did he try to respond to me somehow. In the end, he called the Speaker of the National Assembly to complain and demand that I be banned from entering. By the way, I am very glad that his position has not changed one thing about Vahagn: at the sight of me, he still gets short of breath, just as he did in his youth when he ran into me in our neighborhood yard,” Sukoyan wrote. He also published the decision of Davit Ambaryan, Head of the National Assembly Staff: “The MP’s assistant is temporarily banned from entering due to an extraordinary incident between Sukoyan and Vahagn Aleksanyan and Tsovinar Vardanyan; the ban is intended to prevent further undesirable consequences.”

Ruben Rubinyan, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, later said disciplinary proceedings had been launched against Sukoyan.

The court has accepted Sukoyan’s lawsuit for consideration. The National Assembly Staff asked Sukoyan for a written explanation of both the incident and his Facebook posts. Sukoyan said he gave an explanation only about the incident. He considers the decision to bar him from his workplace unlawful and suspects that the National Assembly Staff is gathering material to issue him a reprimand, since he can be dismissed after two reprimands.