A Canadian-Armenian member of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party claimed that Simonian ordered his bodyguards to overpower him and then spat in his face after he branded the latter a “traitor” on a street in downtown Yerevan on Sunday. Simonian did not deny spitting at the activist, Garen Megerdichian. He said he was gravely insulted and responded accordingly.
Leaders of Armenia’s main opposition groups condemned Simonian’s actions as a “hooligan” act that warrants criminal proceedings.
Ter-Petrosian added his voice to the condemnation in an article posted on ilur.am. He blasted “the notorious Alen Simonian’s unforgivable deed” as a “national disgrace.”
“As for the word traitor, it is not a domestic curse or a personal insult but a purely political assessment which should be countered by a correct and reasonable response, rather than vulgar speech or saliva … There has never been a leader of a more or less democratic state in the world who was not branded a traitor by his political opponents,” he wrote.
“I am not exaggerating at all: his action is the biggest damage done to the reputation of our statehood which can be eliminated only by his removal from office,” Ter-Petrosian went on. “This is the only way to restore the honor of our people in the eyes of the international community.”
He said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party, which controls the National Assembly, should initiate Simonian’s ouster “in order not to finally ruin its standing with the people.”
Lawmakers representing the party on Monday defended the speaker and blamed the opposition activist for Sunday’s incident.
Simonian, who is a senior member of the party and close Pashinian associate, was quick to hit back at the 78-year-old ex-president who had ruled Armenia from 1991-1998. “I’m not a traitor, I never was and never will be,” he wrote on Facebook.
“The historian president should know well what the unforgivable mistakes are and the price paid by country leaders who committed unforgivable mistakes in history,” he said.
Simonian, 43, is no stranger to controversy. In particular, he angered the families of Armenian soldiers taken prisoner during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan with disparaging comments made about them in late 2021.
Last year, Simonian defended his mother after she was caught on camera spitting at opposition protesters and showing the middle finger to them from the balcony of her Yerevan apartment.