The head of the NA “I Have Honor” faction, Hayk Mamijanyan, was very active at the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Partnership Committee session. He asked the European deputies, first the Minister of Justice, Srbuhi Galyan, and then the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arpine Sargsyan, questions about the criminal cases of opposition figures, detentions, and human rights in general.

It is not fair to say that Mamijanyan’s questions were baseless. Srbuhi Galyan also discussed some issues, saying that the ministry is concerned about the quantitative increase in detentions imposed as a preventive measure.

However, what is noteworthy is that Hayk Mamijanyan asked these questions in the presence of the European deputies; in other words, he was raising internal issues with foreigners.

We would not have paid attention to this issue without the credit circumstance. At a time when the Republican Party of Armenia was in power and the opposition raised issues related to human rights in PACE or various international organizations, issues related to political prisoners who were arrested and then convicted in trumped-up criminal cases related to the March 1 events, the authorities at that time were upset that “dirty linen was being taken out of the country.” The question of PACE MP Zaruhi Postanjyan to Serzh Sargsyan became a separate big story. She was even removed from the Armenian delegation to PACE. In 2004, former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan accused the oppositionists of raising Armenia’s internal problems in Europe and explained the failures of the Armenian delegation at that time with this.

Now, Mamijanyan has adopted a similar style of work—the same style for which others were criticized.

Moreover, one more significant circumstance: The “I Have Honor” faction has been boycotting the NA-government question-and-answer session for a long time. Meanwhile, these same questions could have been asked right in the NA hall; the same questions could have been asked to Srbuhi Galyan or Arpine Sargsyan right there, not in the presence of international colleagues, no matter how rational there may be those questions.

But that is not how it is done, preferring to put officials in an awkward position right in front of foreigners.