YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of Armenia writes: For a long time now, rumors have been circulating that the domestic authorities aim to introduce a bill in the near future whereby they will ban former directors of the National Security Service [(NSS)] from engaging in politics. According to the information circulating, the authorities are concerned that in recent years, the NSS directors who have been dismissed from work have started to engage in active politics.

ArmLur.am tried to find out from Artur Vanetsyan, the former director of the NSS, the leader of the [opposition] Homeland Party, what he thinks about all this. "I think it is done on purpose. They want to purposely introduce such a law which is aimed at specifically restricting me so that I do not engage in politics, but the law cannot have retroactive effect, and it is wrong to initiate such a law. An NSS employee is a citizen [of Armenia] who enjoys all human rights, whereas restricting a person to engage in this or that activity is a violation of human rights, which I consider impermissible.”