There is a new term in the political field recently: “political criminals”. Nowadays, both pro-government and oppositionist parties are speaking about the fact that the political field is criminalized. Furthermore, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly they point fingers at the Armenian Republican party.
RA prime minister, head of the ARP, Andranik Margaryan answered to questions at the National Assembly and told journalists that he didn’t share the opinion of those people regarding the Republican Party. “ARP members are not people that have been just released from prison. They are people that have been involved in politics. They are people that have always stayed with the ARP, even if they were not members of the party, anyway, they supported it and backed it”, says the prime minister. According to him, all that information is black PR targeted against the ARP. According to him, they started spreading such rumors just after the recent board meeting, during which many businessmen and MPs joined their party. The prime minister is surprised at the fact that those politicians speaking about anti-criminal movements have known those people so long and have not spoken about such things before. “Besides that, I think those rumors are not targeted at the ARP only. Generally, some politicians that are weak have started a campaign against some parties, and I don’t think they may ever succeed”, said A. Margaryan.
In regard to the criminal groups, the head of “Homeland and Honor” party, Garnik Margaryan said that he would publish facts to show that the persons he meant were really criminals. “Why are you asking me that? You should ask them why they are doing that. I think that if he has facts proving that there have been crimes and has not sent them to the general prosecutor’s office, it means that they have committed crimes too and must be punished too”, said Andranik Margaryan concerning the facts that Garnik Margaryan has promised to publish. Besides Garnik Margaryan, leader of “New Times” party, Aram Karapetyan, has accused some ministers of crimes without mentioning their names. “I am saying the same thing one more time: if they have evidence, that evidence should be issue- based. If they are that brave, let them give out names and crimes. They can generally accuse everyone in Armenia saying that they have committed this or that “, said A. Margaryan.
Concerning the recent murderd in Armenia, the prime-minister said that the cases were not unprecedented because there have always been such crimes in Armenia. In other words, he says that the five murders cannot be a reason to replace the head of the police. “Just for that? No, we haven’t discussed that issue”, said A. Margaryan answering journalists’ question. “You seem to be spies brought from other countries that are asking questions to find out whether the information you have been given is right or no. I don’t see any big changes when I compare the situation with the situation that we had a year ago or five years ago”, said the prime minister. The prime minister says that the murder of Shahen Hovasapyan was tragic and added that the police and the other corresponding bodies should think about that very well, “Who says that the case of Shahen Hovasapyan is not unprecedented? This is a crime against a citizen working for the state. But it doesn’t mean that the whole country is criminalized”, assured A. Margaryan.
The presses have talked about the U.S. Ambassador sending evidence about bribery to the Armenian government. That evidence was connected with “Global Gold” company. There was also some infromation concerning Vartan Ayvazyan, who had taken bribe from that company. Later the U.S. Ambassador gave a tape recording to the RA president proving the bribery. Concerning the mentioned issue A. Margaryan told journalists, “We have discussed that issue with the businessmen council members. We have discussed those issues and come to a conclusion that the facts they have presented are inaccurate and we asked them to apply to the court if they still have problems and don’t believe us. A year has passed since that; this is simply conflict between a business unit and the government”, said Andranik Margaryan.