[imagesource: Civilnet]

Yesterday, dishonourable members of Armenia’s parliament traded punches, threw objects at one another, and generally behaved in a manner that wouldn’t have looked out of place at one of our State of the Nation addresses.

Or one of those Pan-African Parliament sittings, where Julius Malema generally turned proceedings into chaos and disorder.

Tensions boiled over in Armenia when a lawmaker described some of the country’s past defence ministers as “traitors”.

More from Reuters:

Domestic political tensions have run high in Armenia since a war last year in which Azeri forces drove ethnic Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Security officers could be seen pouring onto the floor of the house to quell the disturbance in television footage. The parliament called a recess.

I did a quick translation via Google, and ‘order’ in Armenian is ‘պատվեր’ or ‘patver’.

‘Honourable member’ is ‘հարգելի անդամ’ or ‘hargeli andam’.

You’re welcome to listen out for either of those, or simply watch on as the chaos unfolds:

[source:reuters]