YEREVAN. – Armenian National Assembly (NA) Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan on Thursday met with US Ambassador John Heffern not as the NA leader, but rather as chief of the election campaign headquarters of the ruling Republican Party (RPA) leader and presidential candidate, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, the NA speaker’s spokeswoman Gohar Poghosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.     

She noted that the said meeting with the US ambassador was not secret, and deputy headquarters chiefs—Deputy PM and Territorial Administration Minister—Armen Gevorgyan and—RPA MP—Davit Harutyunyan likewise attended the talk, during which they discussed the electoral processes, activities of the campaign headquarters, etc.    

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, John Heffern on Thursday met with Hovik Abrahamyan, Zhamanak daily reported.

“In all likelihood, the US ambassador discussed with Abrahamyan matters linked to the presidential election [to be held in Armenia on February 18], since he [that is, Abrahamyan] heads Serzh Sargsyan’s [campaign] headquarters.

But this meeting is noteworthy in the sense that the US embassy—or, similarly, America—does not accept Abrahamyan all that much as the NA speaker, and considers him a part of Armenia’s criminal-oligarchic system.

[But] it is noteworthy that neither the NA nor the US embassy released an official statement with respect to the meeting of Abrahamyan and Heffern; and this could be their first meeting,” Zhamanak wrote.