Candidate for MP from Armenia Alliance, Director of Izmirlian medical center Armen Charchyan, at the meeting on morning of June 18 with the employees threatened and obliged them to participate in the voting.
Charchyan noted that he is a candidate of the Armenia Alliance, if anyone does not participate in the elections, he will know about it.
It should be noted that Part 3 of Article 154.2 of the Criminal Code provides for liability for forcing a voter to vote for or against a candidate or a party, as well as for using official powers or other affiliation to force the person to participate in elections.
Moreover, if the act was committed against two or more persons, then according to Part 4 of the same article, imprisonment for a term of four to seven years is envisaged.
Below we present the transcript of the recording:
“My request is as follows․ I want to tell you all once again about the catastrophe that our country is facing today.
Vysotsky has a very good poem: “Along the ledge of the abyss, on the very edge of it…”
Today our country is in the same situation. Some of us go this way, and we are rolling into the abyss, the other part goes the other way, and we can be saved.
We all have a civic duty, I have come to you to fulfill my civic duty.
Let me tell you this, I am the number 20 of the “Armenia” bloc, it is a very high place, a very “door-opening” position I have to say.
But I did not come here as a politician, I now represent not the “Armenia” bloc, but I represent myself – Armen Charchyan, your colleague, doctor, citizen, follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
You must participate in the elections because letting someone choose something for you, it means leaving the fate of your children, your grandchildren, your future generations to someone. Then you hear people saying “ I did not pparticipate in the elections, did you see what they did?” and so on.
No: It is my demand to you, I demand you all to participate in the elections by all means.
Moreover, being in the “Armenia” bloc today, I technically have the opportunity to check the lists, to check who went voted ․․․ then, huh?
I can show you something, yes. Here it is! This is my mandate, this is my certificate as a candidate for an MP, which gives me the status of an MP today.
It gives everything, starting from immunity to possession of information.
And I will do it, I will take the lists after the elections. I have the addresses of all of you, I will see who went to vote and who did not. Believe me.
And if someone doesn’t go to vote, I will consider it going against my word, my request, my exhortation, someone who doesn’t comply with my demand.
And if any of you sitting here will not comply with the request, persuasion, demand of your director, the director and the whole management will have absolutely the same and even much harsher attitude towards that person.
There is an expression, an adequate answer, right? No, the answer will not be adequate, the answer must be very inadequate, because today you decide the fate of my child, my grandson.
If it was a question of my destiny, I could tolerate something, but you decide the destiny of my future generations, just like I decide the destiny of your future generations.
That is why my demand, my exhortation, my request to all of you is to vote on the 20th of the month. I have also instructed the heads of all the departments to check the process on the 20th, on Sunday. They will be consistent, they may call you several times, until you go to vote. It is a mandatory requirement.
I repeat, this is not some kind of a political event, this is an event to fulfil the civic duty.
I know very well that there is a law that prohibits campaigning in hospitals, schools, cultural centers, etc., and that the one who conducts that campaign is punished, and I have always answered before the law.
Although the amount there is not big, it is only two hundred thousand drams, but I do not want to pay even two pennies, because it is not a matter of money, but a matter of law-abiding. I want to keep being law-abiding, do not perceive this as propaganda.
6:00 But I want to inform you of two more circumstances, very important circumstances. Let me remind you of the first compulsion – forcing you to go to vote.
Second, we all work in the structure belonging to the Mother See.
The hospital belongs to the Mother See. The unequivocal position of the Mother See, starting from December, from the first message of His Holiness after the war, and being confirmed three times after that, the last one was a week or 10 days ago, if I am not mistaken, is the following: the current authorities are incompetent, they have failed everything, they must leave. I inform you of the position of the Mother See. You all work in the structure of the Mother See, in the structure of Etchmiadzin, in the structure of the church. Know that your employer has that stand. […] I do not urge you, I do not say go and vote for this or that candidate. The position of the Mother See is that the current authorities should not be voted for.
The current authorities are incompetent, they have failed everything, they must leave.
Since I am on vacation now, I can say that it will never be possible to consider it an abuse of official position.
I, personally, your leader, the head of your medical institution, I made my choice, and you know my choice, I did not tell you anything else. I repeat, believe me, today there are mechanisms for us to check who went to the polls.
And there are quite interesting techniques, I was not even aware of them, sociology is a very accurate science, sociologically and statistically there are quite serious databases and quite serious ones .․․ mechanisms to find out with approximate probability, percentage probability, who had what kind of vote. ”