The ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, led by NA speaker Alen Simonyan, will petition to the Constitutional Court with a request to deprive the country’s opposition lawmakers of their parliamentary mandates.

The respective decision signed by Simonyan, and proposing to petition to the Constitutional Court for depriving 33 opposition MPs of their parliamentary mandates, was posted on the NA official website Monday, but after some time it was removed from there.

Today in the parliament, reporters asked the NA speaker what kind of process he has started with regard to the opposition legislators, to which Alen Simonyan responded: "A very pleasant process has begun."

And to the question that even though the decision has been removed from the NA website, will there be a process of depriving mandates in any case, Simonyan answered: "It is a requirement of the law; it cannot not be."

To note, only the names of opposition MPs Taguhi Tovmasyan and Ishkhan Zakaryan were not on the respective decision.