A Position Has Been Given to the One Who Stole the Soldier's Bread: 168 Hours

The newspaper "168 Hours" reports: Following the arrest of Yerkrapah Volunteer Union President General Manvel Grigoryan, a controversial video released by the National Security Service ignited public outrage. The harshest punishment was demanded for the "one who stole the soldier's bread."

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan frequently addressed this revelation during his Facebook live sessions, promising fellow countrymen that no one who steals a soldier's bread would go unpunished.

Of course, subsequent to the Prime Minister’s statement, several appointments were made within the government from former officials, such as Hunan Poghosyan and Valeri Osipyan, which essentially put the Prime Minister in contradiction with his stated vows and actions, yet this went unnoticed.

The public did not raise the question of why individuals, who had indirect responsibility during their official terms for preventing the stealing of soldier’s bread or punishing the thief, were appointed again, without having utilized those powers.

Moreover, the public failed to confront the new administration with this demand and did not prevent an even more scandalous appointment that was made in the emergency situations sector recently.

The official website of the Ministry of Emergency Situations contains a section titled “Minister’s Orders,” where the last declaration is regarding an order dated November 5 of last year. However, according to "168 Hours," there have been several orders, among which one is particularly noteworthy, having not been published on the website.

At the beginning of February, Emergency Situations Minister Felix Tsolakyan appointed Karapet Margaryan as the Vice-Rector of the State Academy of Crisis Management of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Karapet Margaryan has a criminal record; he was once the commander of one of the armed forces' military units. From April 6, 2010, to August 3, 2013, he assumed the right to instruct some to withdraw a total of 1.656 million AMD worth of fuel allocated to the unit by the Ministry of Defense for its needs and to waste 8.137 million AMD worth of regular gasoline for his personal needs.

For embezzling state property and causing particularly large financial damage of 9 million 793 thousand AMD to the ministry, on November 3, 2015, the court in Yerevan’s Arabkir-Kanaker-Zeytun administrative district sentenced Karapet Margaryan to five and a half years in prison; however, the sentence was conditionally not applied, and a probation period of four years was set instead, with the punishment recognized without the confiscation of property, which is a rare occurrence in cases of embezzlement of this magnitude.

It is worth noting that at the time when Karapet Margaryan was embezzling state funds, Felix Tsolakyan was preoccupied with national security issues. Consequently, the biography of a person who has stolen a soldier's bread and is still under conviction could not have escaped the notice of an experienced and long-serving employee of the National Security Service.

For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.