Armenia's ruling "Civil Contract" Party has nominated Ruben Rubinyan for the position of Speaker of Parliament.
Modern.az reports that Prime Minister and party leader Nikol Pashinyan announced this to journalists after the meeting of the Board of the "Civil Contract" Party.
Ruben Rubinyan currently serves as the Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament. He is also Armenia's special representative for negotiations with Turkey.
R. Rubinyan himself told journalists after the meeting that the internal party vote was secret, and therefore it was not possible to determine who supported which candidate.
It should be noted that three candidates were considered for the position of Speaker of Parliament in the "Civil Contract" Party: the current Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan, Vice-Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, and the leader of the "Civil Contract" faction Hayk Konjoryan.
In response to a question about the reasons for his candidacy, Rubinyan said: "I think my colleagues have decided that it would be more appropriate for me to hold the position of Speaker at this stage."
He also noted that he does not yet know whether he will participate in the Armenia-Turkey negotiation process.
Meanwhile, Serdar Kılıç, Turkey's special representative for the normalization of relations with Armenia, congratulated Ruben Rubinyan, Vice-Speaker of the Armenian Parliament and Armenia's special representative in the normalization process with Turkey, on his selection as a candidate for the new Speaker of Parliament on the social network X.
"I congratulate my colleague Ruben Rubinyan in the process of normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations on his election as Speaker of the Armenian Parliament. Over four years, we have established a productive culture of cooperation and sincere friendly relations with him. I wish him success in his new position," Kılıç wrote in his post.
It should be noted that Serdar Kılıç and Ruben Rubinyan have acted as key representatives in the negotiations aimed at normalizing relations between Ankara and Yerevan in recent years.
