YEREVAN. June 17 (Interfax) - The Armenian parliament meeting on the matter of the government's resignation has failed in the absence of quorum caused by the boycott from the ruling Civil Contract Party (CCP).
Only 34 MPs were registered at the meeting, compared to the necessary number of 54.
CCP faction secretary Artur Hovhannisyan told reporters earlier that they would not participate in the meeting, " because the opposition's agenda is erroneous and does not match the agendas stemming from Armenia's state interests ".
"The extraordinary session cannot take place without our participation. It will be convened by force of law, but will not take place due to the absence of a quorum," he said.
In parallel, a rally called by Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Barat Galstanyan, the Armenian protest movement leader, began in front of the parliament building.
The Armenia and With Honor opposition factions earlier came up with the initiative of holding an emergency parliament meeting with the agenda "on the government's resignation and the need to form a new government."
On May 4, with the blessing of Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Archbishop Galstanyan announced demonstrations in Yerevan in protest against the Armenian government's policy on the matter of delimitating borders with Azerbaijan. Galstanyan demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation. Later, on May 26, the opposition staged a rally in downtown Yerevan to propose Galstanyan as a candidate to run for prime minister. Galstanyan then said that he had asked Garegin II to suspend his service as an archbishop.