A quite strange situation was created in the political elite of Armenia. During the practice of journalism I often notice that political and economic actors and even not very high-ranked or wealthy ones, avoid to openly speak about any issue in a closed office, vicinity of state institutes. And especially they don’t answer any serious question on the telephone. Nobody trusts anybody. They are afraid to speak to each other especially at the offices, restaurants and even in their own cars. Everybody think that they are being bugged or recorded. They are afraid or recordings and libels, which has recently becomes a common practice. Many people now even avoid speaking too much on the facebook. And this concern is not unsubstantiated. There have been many outstanding cases on the above-mentioned. For example, several years ago the chairman of the Legal State party Artur Baghdasaryan was involved in a scandalous story. His conversation with the deputy-ambassador of Great Britain was recorded. Let us remember that according to publications Baghdasaryan, who was at that time playing opposition, held a meeting in Marco Polo restaurant and was persuading the deputy-ambassador to give a negative assessment about the results of parliamentary elections 2007. The then-president Robert Kocharyan labeled this conversation “treacherous attitude.” The one-time oppositionist and later a servant of the current regime Artashes Geghamyan also stated that his phone conversations are bugged and overheard. He said that the overhearing is taking place in Arkady Tadevosyan’s DOSAF. Moreover, Geghamyan insisted that the initiator of the bugging was the then-minister of defense Serzh Sargsyan, with whom he now has pretty close relations. According to a fresher example, after the March 1-2 events the government publicized the telephone conversations of Alexan Arzumanyan and some other oppositionists. This was done before the mentioned tragic events. It means that in the past this practice was being applied but it has become more popular now. Everybody is afraid of that. According to various rumors almost all the statesmen of Armenia, ministers, deputy-ministers, MPs and others periodically call in bug-seekers to find bugs in their offices, cars and even cars. They also tell that as a result of these “cleanings” handful of bugs are found among many statesmen. The experts of this sector claim that due to modern laser technologies is it possible to overhear what the people are speaking about when near a cell phone even if the latter is turned off. It is even possible to reveal the location of the owner of the telephone. According to certain information, during the recent years the secret services of Armenia have imported very professional and expensive devices for overhearing. Indeed this information may resemble a detective film but during public and open conversations many officials and politicians confess that they even doubt their loyal drivers in planting bugs, their receptionists, all the employees, even friends and lovers. The “work” of this suspicion currently gnaws all the statesmen and politicians. And many of them prefer to conduct their serious and important talks in an open air, in a park instead of offices, cars and restaurants. And especially under these inter-political intense conditions this fear becomes more evident and dominating. Yesterday we tried to find out from government and opposition politicians whether they are afraid of being bugged. But this time we told them we are going to publicize this information. Many of the statesmen didn’t wish to speak about that theme. Many of them would either laugh or turn off their phones after listening to the question. They would get angry or say that they have nothing to be watchful about. “No, I always speak out loud,” said an RPA MP Vardan Ayvazyan. Only the MP of the Prosperous Armenia Vardan Bostanjyan responded that it’s worth being careful at any rate. “The incautious person is the most foolish person in the world. I don’t have such a fear. I just have an imperative of not being foolish. All a person needs to do be careful and vigilant. Then you shouldn’t care whether they will stalk or bug you,” said the MP. An ANC representative, a former deputy-minister of the national security Gurgen Yeghiazaryan told us that in democratic countries there is no fear about being bugged or overheard. “As a rule only totalitarian countries speak about that. And as long as we have a classical totalitarianism and dictatorship then their concerns are pretty relevant and serious,” said Yeghiazaryan. Was the NSS recording the conversations of statesmen during his tenure? “We haven’t recorded or bugged anyone in such a way. If we did then it was in the framework of the launched criminal case investigation. Otherwise it would be a serious violation of the law. I have also noticed when they speak they hide their phones. They turn on the radio and apply various steps. This is way far gone,” concluded Yeghiazaryan.
