‘Hraparak’. Pashinyan’s Secret Order: Armenian Ambassadors Forbidden to Accept Gifts from Local Armenian Community

‘Hraparak’ newspaper reports that a secret letter has been sent to all Armenian embassies on the instruction of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which prohibits the acceptance of any gifts from representatives of the local Armenian community going forward.

Sources indicated that embassies have been advised to present all their needs over the next three years for state funding, so they do not rely on the local Armenian community. The reason seems to be that various Armenians operating in different countries, who have provided support to our embassies—whether resolving issues related to the ambassador’s car or other matters—have demanded certain privileges in return from the ambassadors, such as government license plates for the embassy, among other things.

Moreover, until recently, there was a specific list of friends of the embassy, which embassies had approached for financial and other support for years. Now, Nikol Pashinyan has decided to eliminate this practice, forgetting that our embassies only survive to a reasonable extent through these donations, as the state does not provide adequate funding to be able to purchase normal service vehicles or organize events.

This also reflects yet another double standard: on one hand, gifting expensive items like ‘KamAZ’ trucks to the municipality in exchange for building permits is deemed acceptable, while at the same time, ambassadors are prohibited from accepting gifts.

We contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a comment, and they stated they have no information at this moment but will try to verify the information.

For further details, refer to today’s edition of the newspaper.