Judging by the pictures, I think it was a gun - Vartan Oskanian.

Armenia’s ex-minister of foreign affairs Vartan Oskanian, who is now running for parliament from the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), believes PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan arrived at his meeting with voters armed.

“Judging by the pictures, I think it was a gun,” he said.

Although he personally saw “the pictures,” he advised journalists against making a mountain out of a molehill.

“If it is legal, we should not place emphasis on it,” Oskanian said.

As regards PAP members’ claims that it was a “mobile, not a gun,” Oskanian advised turning to Tsarukyan.

A number of Armenia’s e-media outlets published pictures of PAP Chairman Gagik Tsarukyan meeting with his voters. Many people could “make out” a gun in the pictures, while PAP members say it was a mobile.

On April 13, Gagik Tsarukyan traveled to Armavir marz (province) to meet local residents as part of the election campaign. During the meeting, cameras fixed a golden gun plunged in Tsarukyan's back.

Vartan Oskanian, who is second on the PAP list of election candidates, has seen the footage and is certain that it was a gun and not a phone [as it was presented by certain sources].

Asked whether the PAP leader does not feel safe during his meetings with voters, Mr Oskanian said, "You had better address the question to Gagik Tsarukyan. But I see nothing extraordinary in it."

With regard to Tsarukyan's readiness to give tractors to Armenian marzes, the ex-foreign minister said it should not be viewed as electoral bribe.

"It is spring and peasants started work on farms. Should farmers suffer because of elections?" he said.
Though the tractors have not yet arrived in Armenia, the PAP member says they will be given to residents of ten marzes regardless of the outcome of the May 6 parliamentary elections.