First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan is competing with Vazgen Manukyan, and this is perhaps based on the events that took place in 1996. This is what Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters today, touching upon Ter-Petrosyan’s statement that Nikol Pashinyan needs to resign and take shelter abroad with immunity.

“I respect the first President, but I wouldn’t like to continue to comment on his statement. I can only say that it is absurd,” he said.

As for Ter-Petrosyan’s claim that there will be widespread use of administrative resources, if the ruling party organizes snap parliamentary elections, Simonyan stated the following: “Ter-Petrosyan should first talk about his evaluation of the elections held in 1996, the events that took place after the elections and his role in those events and then talk about the snap elections.”

Asked if the ruling party will hold elections with troops, the deputy parliamentary speaker said there won’t be troops and told reporters to not worry about Nikol Pashinyan.