According to our information, following the appointment of Vladimir Gasparyan in the position of Armenia’s police chief the US government has decided to stop providing support to the police of Armenia. Before leaving from Armenia the former Ambassador of the US Marie Yovanovitch met with the ex-chief of the police Alik Sargsyan in summer and committed that the cooperation between the US and Armenia would continue for the purpose of reforming the police structure. According to the dame sources, the reason of this decision was the fact that before becoming the police chief, while being in the office of the defense minister’s deputy, V. Gasparyan made announcements about the non-governmental organizations fighting against violence in the army, including the head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki committee, in which he said that they were ‘grant-eaters’ and ‘traitors’ who don’t have a fatherland. During a close meeting with such organizations at the defense ministry there were also people present such as A. Sakunts and representatives of the Open Society Institute (Soros foundation and OSCE/Yerevan office). By the way, on November 10 the Helsinki committee office in Vanadzor, represented by A. Sakunts, applied with a petition to the court of general jurisdiction of Kanaker and Zeitun communities and asked to reimburse for insulting their reputation and name. It is worth mentioning that for many years the US government has been providing huge financial and other support to the police of Armenia. For example, in 2009the US government granted vehicles and computers to worth of USD70,000. The US government has also provided sports attributes and materials worth of USD40k to the police. This support was a part of a complex support provided to Armenia by the US. Since the changes to the agreement between the governments of the US and Armenia in 2005 the US government has provided 2,4mln USD support to Armenia, which had to be spent on the implementation of 6 projects. By the way, since agreement between the governments of the US and Armenia in 2001 the US government has provided over 5million USD support. We were informed about the mentioned decision of the US government yesterday evening, thus we did not have an opportunity to ask for comments from the US Embassy in Armenia. We will ask for comment and publish that information in our next edition.
