YEREVAN. – I do not care what questions will be asked at the Investigative Committee because I will not answer any question, and I will not testify at all. Former PM Vazgen Manukyan, the opposition Homeland Salvation Movement’s candidate for PM, on Thursday told this to reporters in front of the building of the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

Manukyan was summoned to the Investigative Committee Thursday within the framework of a criminal case under the Criminal Code article on making public calls aimed at seizing power.

"I have said sentences, let the lawyers interpret what those sentences mean. I have no cause or reason to testify; this is truly political persecution. During the last 2.5 years in our country, the Constitution, the laws are violated by the head of the country [i.e., PM Nikol Pashinyan] at least once a month. (…). I believe criminal cases should be initiated against him and be persecutes," said Manukyan.

Vazgen Manukyan stated that he had been summoned to the Investigative Committee to be charged, but stressed that he did not accept the accusation being leveled against him.

To the question, according to him, the statements made by him are a violation of the Constitution, Manukyan said that they are not.

And when asked whether this criminal case will have any impact on the course of the aforesaid movement, its PM candidate said: "Every action has some consequences. If they arrest me, there are thousands of people who will continue this struggle because it is not my whim, this struggle is not my whim; it is the wish of the people."