On 20 August, the Open Society Foundation (OSF) in Armenia, which is commonly known in the country as the ‘Soros Foundation’, called for the establishment of an ethics committee in the Armenian parliament to look into whether the deputy speaker of parliament Alen Simonyan from the ruling My Step faction has been in breach of ethics rules “in terms of both language and content,” over the recent statements he made over George Soros, reported the Armenian Radio Free Europe.

In his interview with Hraparak, Simonyan was asked why the ruling faction is often accused of having ties with the Soros Foundation. In reply Simonyan called George Soros a “half-dead old man” and added: “Whose dog is Soros, his father or anyone else to have influence on the government in the Republic of Armenia? Only a citizen of the Republic of Armenia has influence on Armenia.”

“I have the impression that some of our opponents, so to speak, have the impression that any office can really have influence,” Simonyan added.

OSF-Armenia Executive Director Larisa Minasyan countered this by saying that she is concerned with the language that is being used by some members of parliament. “The vice-speaker brings the quality of public discourse, which is already low, down to unprecedented lows,” she said.

Minasyan also said that in the last year and a half various forces have lost power and corrupt groups have been waging an unprecedented smear campaign against the Open Society Foundations. She believes that this campaign is actually aimed against My Step. To note, the OSF was very often the target of right-wing groups in Armenia, which consider Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to be an agent of Soros.

Simonyan replied by saying that Minasyan cannot decide an ethics committee’s topics. “We are responsible only to the citizens of the Republic of Armenia. They will decide what to discuss and what political agenda to have. One has to put up with this idea. Let them write this in all caps on the walls of all their offices,” he said.