Past.am of Armenia writes: Former acting director of the NSS [National Security Service], Mikayel Hambardzumyan, confirmed in an interview yesterday that during his tenure [in the aforesaid capacity] there were cases when he refused to fulfill the Prime Minister's instructions.

According to our reliable sources, [PM] Nikol Pashinyan gave such an order to Colonel Hambardzumyan regarding Bishop Arshak [Khachatryan], Chancellor of the Mother See [of Holy Etchmiadzin], which Hambardzumyan did not carry out.

According to our sources, Pashinyan literally instructed to "throw” the clergyman “down the [NSS] basement, ‘break’ his head so that he could be disciplined."

Hambardzumyan told the Prime Minister that he could not give an order to raise a hand against a clergyman, after which he [Pashinyan] proposed [Hambardzumyan] to write a petition [for dismissal], leave, which was met.

To note, in his addresses and interviews Bishop Arshak Khachatryan has repeatedly sharply criticized the incumbent Armenian authorities.