YEREVAN. – It was a failed attempt to stand out. Armenia National Assembly vice-speaker Alen Simonyan said this in a conversation with journalists today regarding Russian playwright and poet Alexander Griboyedov’s statue in Yerevan being splashed in paint.

"I have a negative view," Simonyan said. “That man [who painted the statue] just doesn't know who Griboyedov is, what role he played (...). It is a vandalism that is unacceptable and has nothing to do with the objective he noted. It was a failed attempt to stand out, and to my delight, it received a negative response from all walks of life."

As earlier reported, Shahen Harutyunyan, the son of the leader of Tseghakron Party Shant Harutyunyan, announced that he had painted Alexander Griboyedov's statue in Yerevan in red in response to the painting in black of the memorial plaque of Armenian military-political figure Garegin Nzhdeh, in Armavir, Russia.

Shahen Harutyunyan announced in November that he no longer works in the National Assembly. He was the assistant to the majority My Step faction MP Yerjanik Hakobyan.