YEREVAN. – Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, was not satisfied with the work of now former director of the National Security Service, Artur Vanetsyan. Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of the Security Council (SC), on Thursday told this to reporters.

According to Grigoryan, the PM has spoken as openly as possible about the reasons for the removal of Vanetsyan from office: “He [Pashinyan] was not satisfied with his [Vanetsyan’s] work.”

Asked if he also believes—as the PM had stated—that Vanetsyan has thrown his epaulettes into the garbage can, Grigoryan responded as follows: “What the Prime Minister has said is true. And in this respect, I want to point out a very important thing. It’s generally debated whether or not the Prime Minister is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. You know that after the constitutional amendments, it has been noted in the Constitution that it [the PM being the Supreme Commander-in-Chief] exists only in a war situation. I can ask: Is the Republic of Armenia at war now, or not? In fact we are at war. I realize that the Constitution is very important, but the Constitution has specified something that has certain problems with the reality.”

The SC secretary stressed that if Armenia is still at war now, at least factually, then the Constitution answers the matter about the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Armen Grigoryan added that he saw no threat of a coup by Artur Vanetsyan.