Ruben Rubinyan Chosen as Candidate for National Assembly Speaker

YEREVAN — At a meeting of the Civil Contract Party’s board on June 25, Ruben Rubinyan was chosen as the party’s candidate for speaker of the National Assembly following a closed secret ballot.

Speaking with reporters, Rubinyan said the decision was political.

“I assume that most of my colleagues considered that, at this stage, it would be right for me to hold this position, and this is a natural process. Politically, the decision has been made,” Rubinyan said.

Rubinyan noted that the result of the vote was not entirely unexpected for him, though it was also not fully expected.

“I cannot say whether it was expected or not, but I am honored by the result. This trust is very binding for me, but I cannot say that I must do something better than the previous speaker. Alen Simonyan was a very good speaker of the National Assembly and the first to preside until the end of his term. Hayk Konjoryan was a very good leader of the parliamentary faction. Over the past five years, we have carried out very important and responsible work, passing through major trials,” Rubinyan said.

The possible candidates for speaker of the National Assembly were incumbent Speaker Alen Simonyan, Ruben Rubinyan and Hayk Konjoryan.

Ruben Rubinyan was a civic activist and co-founder of the Civil Contract Party from 2015 to 2018. From 2018 to 2019, he served as deputy foreign minister. From 2019 to 2021, he was a member of parliament and chaired the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations. Since August 2021, he has served as deputy speaker of the National Assembly, and since December, he has also served as Armenia’s special representative in the Armenia-Turkey normalization process.

Speaker of the 8th convocation of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan congratulated Ruben Rubinyan.

“I congratulate my colleague Ruben Rubinyan on being chosen by the Civil Contract Party board as the candidate for speaker of the 9th convocation of the National Assembly. I am confident that he will honorably continue the work we began together for the sake of the Republic of Armenia,” Simonyan wrote on his social media pages.