Ruben Hakobyan.
Ruben Hakobyan, member of the Heritage Party and leader of the its faction in parliament, has announced that he is leaving the party.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Hakobyan said that there were fundamental divergences on a number of issues between him and Raffi Hovhannisyan, the leader of Heritage. According to Hakobyan, the problem stemmed from both external and domestic policies but also regarding internal party organizational issues.
“I have a great deal of respect for Raffi, and I don’t want our political differences to reflect negatively on the Heritage Party and in particular, on the realization of Raffi Hovhannisyan’s political plans. I am terminating my membership in the Heritage Party, as well as resigning from the position of leader of the faction,” Hakobyan said. “I would like to thank all the members of the Heritage Party for our joint work over the last several years.”
Hakobyan didn’t provide any further explanations about what the details of this disagreements were with Hovhannisyan.
From 1994-2008, Ruben Hakobyan was a member of the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun after which he joined the Heritage Party. In 1990-1995 he was a member of the Supreme Council and in 1995-1998, a member of the first sitting of Armenia’s National Assembly.
In May 2012, Ruben Hakobyan was elected to parliament on the Heritage ticket.