If elected NA President, naturally, I will no longer be the envoy on Armenian-Turkish issues. Deputy speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Ruben Rubinyan, told this to reporters today at the NA.

Regarding the reports that some officials in the NA staff are packing their bags, since Alen Simonyan will not hold the post of speaker in the new parliament, Rubinyan said: “I will address the personnel changes in the NA staff when its time comes. I do not consider it appropriate to talk about it now.”

Also, Rubinyan denied that he had insinuated the dismissing of anyone. “If I did something like that, it would be premature, because now it’s just that the CC [i.e. the ruling Civil Contract party] board has decided to nominate my candidacy. At the moment, there is an incumbent NA president in, there is an incumbent staff,” he said.

The Civil Contract party board has elected Ruben Rubinyan as the candidate for the NA speaker; that is, Rubinyan will hold the position of speaker in the new Armenian parliament. And Alen Simonyan announced Thursday that he will not take the MP’s mandate in the new National Assembly.