YEREVAN. – The halls of power continue their impudent information attacks. Arman Abovyan, secretary of the parliamentary faction of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), on Thursday said this at a briefing with journalists in the National Assembly, and referring to a journalist's remark that a video is actively spread on the internet showing PAP members throwing their party membership cards on the ground.

"This is in the logic of tough discrediting which the authorities are carrying out today because they have no choice, and they have to cover up in some way the political persecution [of theirs against the PAP]," he added, in particular.

And asked whether there had been people these days who had quit the PAP, Abovyan responded: "I have no [such] information. Moreover, during these days alone, more than 4,000 people have applied to be included in the PAP. (…) because what is happening around the PAP today is not only a mere party issue or relating to Mr. [Gagik] Tsarukyan [PAP leader, MP, and business tycoon]; it is a national issue because the path chosen by the halls of power today is not leading to the abyss, but is leading to collapse. If in the past we had various problems in the economic, social and other spheres, today we obviously have a political crisis, and the only culprit is the authorities.”