A person who discloses a state secret is a traitor. This is what former Director of the National Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan told Aravot.am newspaper, touching upon his latest interview in which he made a statement (“Can you imagine what will happen, if I suddenly start talking without thinking about the consequences?”) and the responses of deputies of the My Step faction of the National Assembly and other MPs who said Vanetsyan should disclose information of public interest, if he has such information.

“I want to make it clear that if a person to whom state secrets have become known during his service and if that person discloses those secrets in any case, he or she must be declared as a traitor of the nation. A person who discloses a state secret is a traitor of the nation,” he said.

When told that criminal cases were instituted against the former police chief, the former chairman of the State Revenue Committee, the director of one of the companies owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, the former defense minister and several other former high-ranking officials after his resignation, Mr. Vanetsyan said the revelations were made in the cases that were instituted during his term of office.