A small group, opposition factions in parliament, media outlets serving those factions, the presses of a third country that have joined them and a circle of some political scientists are discussing that the process against our counterpart is political and would like for me to express my position on the case as Prime Minister.

This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said today as he touched upon the criminal cases instituted in relation to Gagik Tsarukyan and the developments of the criminal cases in parliament today.

Touching upon the claim that this has a political subtext, Pashinyan said the following: “This claim is based on the hypothesis that the criminal cases were instituted after the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party made a statement. On that day, my spokesperson responded that perhaps the reason for Mr. Tsarukyan’s statement is that he is concerned about the course of investigation of several criminal cases.

If we take a look at the statistics of the past two years, we’ll see that criminal cases have been instituted against current deputy of the National Assembly Eduard Babayan, against Nver Tsarukyan in relation to the murder in the city of Abovyan, a motion to arrest Sedrak Arustamyan with respect to the North-South Highway was filed on September 20, 2019, after which Gagik Khachatryan was arrested on April 20 of this year. I would like to add that I have stated several times that Armenian law-enforcement authorities aren’t working effectively under corruption cases,” the Prime Minister said.

According to Pashinyan, in the past, the authorities has always used these criminal cases to keep those forces under control because there has been a problem with legitimacy. “Our government has no objective to turn criminal cases into a subject of political bargain. We say all the stolen money needs to be returned. I have stated that the government will return every penny. Courts are investigating one of the most important cases of the Third Republic of Armenia because, after all, a coordinated institution to use force against the people’s will has been revealed,” he said.