On April 4, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first President of Armenia, commented on the recent incident involving Alen Simonyan, the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia. 

"No matter how much I try to restrain myself, I still can't stop thinking about the disgusting incident that happened two days ago. When the young man saw Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan on the street surrounded by bodyguards, he loudly called him a 'traitor.' Simonyan, calmly breaking through the chain of bodyguards, approached the young man with 'quiet steps' and spat in his face, which, by the way, he proudly confirmed in his explanations after the incident," the ex-president noted. 

"The word 'spit' [except in the field of medicine] is vulgar in itself when it is used even in domestic disputes. But when it comes from the lips of one of the highest statesmen, especially when it turns into a concrete action, then this is the end of the state," Ter-Petrosyan added. "As for the word 'traitor,' this is not an everyday abuse and not a personal insult, but a purely political assessment, which should be countered not with a vulgar speech or spitting, but with a correct and reasonable answer, especially since the authorities have unlimited means of information and propaganda. There has not been a leader of a more or less democratic state in the world who has not been branded a traitor by his political opponents. This may seem surprising if, for example, I remember that at one time, even prominent US presidents were declared traitors by their political opponents - like Roosevelt for ceding the countries of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union and Truman for not preventing the communization of China. None of them spat in the face of those who branded them traitors, but personally or through their supporters, they fended off all such accusations with strong arguments," the statement added.

"Let's return to the 'unforgivable' act of the notorious Alen Simonyan, the chairman of the only state instance [Parliament], endowed with the primary mandate of the Armenian people," the former president continued. "By the way, 'unforgivable' in this case is not just a word, but it means that the National Assembly, and, first of all, the faction [of the ruling party] "Civil Contract," in order not to lose credibility before the people, are obliged to initiate the issue of retired Alain Simonyan. I am not exaggerating at all; his act is the biggest damage to our statehood's reputation, which can be eliminated only at the cost of his removal from office. This is the only way to restore the honor of our people before the international community. I call on all the media to disseminate this appeal and our entire society and political forces to join this initiative. And not at all through mass events, demonstrations, processions, but by strictly legal means," Ter-Petrosyan concluded.

Notably, on April 2, a Canadian citizen of Armenian descent, Karen Mkrtchyan, seeing Alen Simonyan in the center of Yerevan, called him a "traitor" in response, the speaker's guard twisted his arms, and Simonyan himself approached the offender and spat in his face.

Moreover, Alen Simonyan admitted that he did not expect the statement of Levon Ter-Petrosyan demanding his resignation.  "I have never been and never will be a traitor, and on the day when my compatriots, once again gathered on the streets, will need me as a leader, I will not sit at home and do not care who says what later. The president-historian should know well what unforgivable mistakes are and what price the countries' leaders pay for them," Simonyan noted.

He invited Ter-Petrosyan to parliament to discuss who and when caused the most severe damage to the state.