No One Is Planning to Forget Anything: Prime Minister at the Special Investigative Service

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the solemn session dedicated to the Day of the Special Investigation Service's Employee and the 12th anniversary of the service’s establishment. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the Prime Minister congratulated the head of the Special Investigation Service, Sasun Khachatryan, and all employees of the service on the occasion of their professional day, noting that the Special Investigation Service is the body that investigates cases of legal violations committed by high-ranking officials in the Republic of Armenia.

“Of course, by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and its essence, the Special Investigation Service is an independent body, but it should still be noted that the political context and atmosphere present in the country are very important for the activities of this body, because institutional independence in itself does not and cannot mean environmental independence,” said the Prime Minister, adding that it is impossible to build legality, independence, and justice in an isolated body.

“I believe and I am convinced that today the conditions for the activities of the Special Investigation Service or more precisely, for investigating crimes committed by high-ranking officials, are the best they have ever been in the history of the Third Republic. And I want to emphasize that when we talk about high-ranking officials, generally about the fight against corruption, abuses, due to the political situation and nuances, it is usually perceived that we are only referring to former officials. I want to use this opportunity today to state that perhaps in terms of principles we are more concerned with current officials because if the fight against abuses refers only to the past, it will merely be political conjuncture, a political convenience and an attempt to replace the old culture of abuses with a new culture of abuses, to replace the old staff of abuses with a new staff of abuses. I want to clearly state that such a silent commentary on the situation has nothing to do with reality. I am convinced, knowing, analyzing this period, discussing our interactions with the head of the Special Investigation Service, the Prosecutor General, the chairman of the Investigative Committee, the heads of Police, and National Security Service, I am convinced that we and our government representatives understand this challenge very well,” emphasized Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister stated that it is the responsibility of the authorities to state that officials in the Republic of Armenia cannot be above the law, and this is the fundamental institutional change that must be made in the near future.

“I do not intend to state that the solution to this problem is solely, as it is commonly said, a component of punitive policy. No, not at all. Here, the institutional reforms that we have begun and which we will consistently pursue are very important in this regard - we have adopted a strategy to combat corruption, we have adopted a judicial and legal reform strategy, but a proper investigation of possible abuses involving both former and current officials must be a highly visible beacon, a flag demonstrating the seriousness of our intentions because strategies, policies, and declarations have been adopted and made until now. But it is very important that the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, our people, and the international community see that concrete actions follow those declarations regarding both institutional reforms and the proper investigation of abuses,” Pashinyan noted.

Much has been said about how the law enforcement system operates, and I myself have had the opportunity to say that I cannot generally say that I am very satisfied with the results of the investigations related to corruption and officials in general. However, this is, frankly speaking, very easy to state at a political level, but when we delve into the details and recognize facts, we see that indeed significant work has been done,” said the Prime Minister, adding that there is currently a huge issue of the heavy workload of investigators in all investigative bodies, including the Special Investigation Service.

“Today, when we study the average workload of investigators, we see that, essentially, people are working under inhumane conditions. And honestly, for this work, I would like to first of all thank the investigators of the Special Investigation Service and our investigative bodies, the prosecutor's office for their work, but on the other hand, to say that this is our, so to speak, unique, our state, don’t misunderstand, the Way of the Cross. We have to go through this suffering in order to bring our country to a new height,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

The head of the government emphasized that the government should think about the social guarantees of the Special Investigation Service’s investigators and added that the head of the service consistently raises this issue before the government and that agenda is very important.

“The fact that the head of the Special Investigation Service recently announced is essentially a sensational fact. If I understood correctly, you noted that in one year of operation, the Special Investigation Service has restored seven times more damage to the state through the cases examined than in the previous eleven years of the Special Investigation Service’s existence. Here is such a fact. Why do I want to announce it? Because there are many criticisms in the public regarding what happened with the investigations, the cases, and sometimes I also provide certain continuity to those criticisms. But this fact indicates that indeed a tremendous amount of work is being done. I want to emphasize that these kinds of concerns and apprehensions arise not because the issue is that people think why was so much damage restored in such a long time and why wasn’t a larger part restored, the concern is not actually that, the concern is different: people think that with their familiar logic after a good month, a good year, a good year and a half after the revolution everyone will forget why we gathered, and there will be a return to the old logic, that is we will fall back into the old paradigm,” said the Prime Minister.

The head of the government assured that no one and nothing is planning to forget, to lose the agenda, and the executive will consistently move forward with its proclaimed agenda. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that, in essence, the greatest goal of the government's policy is to change the self-perception of a public official and change people's perceptions of public officials.

“In the Republic of Armenia, public officials have usually had, have, and still have, let’s admit, that even partially none of us is completely free from that temptation because the inertia of traditions is indeed very powerful. Let’s acknowledge that there has been, still is, continues to be, and will continue to be for some time the following situation: officials quickly acquire, so to speak, the complex of a ruler and a chief, they acquire the complex of a lord. Our task is that the complex of this public official, this ruler and lord is transformed, I apologize for such a formulation, into the complex of Christ. What do I mean by this? I mean why precisely the complex of Christ, so that every official understands that he is both a servant and a master at the same time. Because separating these two in the status of a public official will not be sufficiently useful because if we do so that the public official is only a servant, guided by standards, this means bringing him to a situation where he is unable to make decisions and to have the disintegration of the state system. Therefore, why is the image of Jesus good? Because he is 100 percent a servant and is a master to the extent that he can make decisions and can explain the logic of his decisions to others and can make that logic familiar to others.

Esteemed head of the Special Investigation Service, esteemed officials, esteemed employees, and investigators of the Special Investigation Service, I congratulate you once again on this occasion and I am glad that it is precisely our government that has legally designated the Day of the Employee of the Special Investigation Service. I wish you all the best and I do not want to highlight any particular criminal case, although, as I said during our first meeting last year, there are cases that are of strategic significance for the Republic of Armenia, but on the other hand, the expansion of your activity within this past year shows that the number of strategically significant cases is increasing, and yes, allow me to note that mainly strategic cases are being investigated at the Special Investigation Service—at least conceptual, philosophical, in terms of the vision of the country’s development, although if we overly generalize, the investigation of every criminal case is strategic because the quality of the investigation of that case, the logic of that case, and the degree of justice predetermined the atmosphere that we have in the Republic of Armenia, and that atmosphere predetermines the citizens of Armenia's attitude toward their country, and that attitude predetermines the future that awaits us and our generations.

On this festive day, I wish all of us to continue to remain imbued with a greater sense of responsibility toward our past, this day, and the future,” concluded Prime Minister Pashinyan.

For their contributions in strengthening the rule of law and legality, Deputy Head of the Special Investigation Service Hovhannes Yenokyan and senior investigator of particularly important cases Gegham Margaryan have been awarded the “Mkhtiar Gosh” medal by the initiative of the Prime Minister and by the decree of the President of Armenia. The senior investigator of particularly important cases Garegin Begoyan and senior investigator of particularly important cases Ashot Jamkocyan have also been awarded the commemorative medal of the Prime Minister of the Republic. The awards were presented personally by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Attending the event were also the Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan, the chairman of the Investigative Committee Hayk Grigoryan, temporary acting head of police Arman Sarkisyan, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, Minister of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakyan, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan, and temporary acting head of the State Oversight Service Argishti Kyaramyan, among other high-ranking officials. The head of the Special Investigation Service Sasun Khachatryan addressed the outcomes of the service’s activities in his speech, including statistical data on the cases investigated by the service.