YEREVAN. – All this time Armenia’s Police lied by saying that the country’s passports are printed in France, Haykakan Zhamanak (HZ) daily writes. 

“HZ reporter asked senior police officials yesterday [Friday] whether it is true that the passports are being printed in [Armenia’s] Jrvezh [city] printing house.

[And] The most funny [thing] was that, except for Deputy Police Chief Arthur Osikyan, no one at the Police knew the answer to this question because, by hearing our reporter’s question, the heads of the Police’s various departments—who were present to the meeting with the journalists—began to laugh, accepting it [i.e., the question] as a joke.   

Solely Osikyan did not laugh. He said: ‘A French company was carrying out the tender which the Police had announced last year. [And] An Armenian organization won the new, additional contest in the month of May. As a result, yes, an Armenian organization likewise will start serving [for printing of passport] as of today.’  

Certainly, this could have a ‘beneficial’ impact for showing the ‘necessary’ number of voters in the forthcoming [presidential] elections [in Armenia],” Haykakan Zhamanak writes.