We are heading to elections to receive the people's mandate once again, Security Council Secretary

We are heading to elections to receive the people's mandate once again. This was stated by the Secretary of the Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, in an interview with Azatutyun.

He noted that the false accusations against them are so numerous that they have had to deny the fabrications regarding comments related to the war before they could engage in substantive discussions.

'Many say that the incidents in July led to the start of the war in September. In fact, the decision to go to war was made earlier, and it had already manifested to some extent in April 2016. Additionally, an important fact is that in October we received intelligence data indicating that a decision to commence military operations had been made in Azerbaijan as early as June. The analysis of this information suggests that a decision to initiate military actions had been taken in Azerbaijan at least in April-May,' Grigoryan noted.

Speaking about the promises the officials made before being elected that 'the former leaders will be punished,' but still there is not even a single verdict fulfilling that promise, Grigoryan mentioned that judicial reforms have slowed down to some extent and the expected results have not yet been achieved.

When asked if he is satisfied with what is happening regarding the March 1 trial, he replied, 'Naturally, it does not satisfy me because there has not even been an opportunity for the judicial process to enter a logical phase. The public is not being provided with clear information on what happened on March 1, there is no justice, yet this process continues, and I believe that the reforms being implemented will have an impact.'

Referring to the upcoming elections and expected results, the Secretary of the Security Council mentioned that the ruling 'Civil Contract' party expects to receive a significant majority of votes in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

'If you look at the published poll data, the 'Civil Contract' has around 35 percent support, while the remaining parties are below that, within the range of 3, 4, sometimes 5 percent. Let's see, it will be difficult to make predictions, but we are heading to elections to receive the people's mandate once again. When you are a democrat, coups or any such events do not occur. As I mentioned, 1998 is a vivid example for us. Why in 1998 were several forces able to force one person to resign and take power, while in 2020-21 there was an elite uprising that failed to achieve anything? The source of stability has mainly been the people. After the difficult phase of 2020, the people managed to ensure stability. Let me make it clear, if the people had taken to the streets, a change of power would have occurred, but there was no change of power, and despite the revolt of the former leadership, including the elite structures, the overall system has maintained stability, no matter how much they claim there was no system, stability has been preserved, and we have reached the elections; this is a fundamentally important issue. No matter how many resources, money, or support from various places they have, they have been unable to effect a change of power in Armenia,' he said.

In response to a clarifying question about who these people were, such as Robert Kocharyan or Serzh Sargsyan, he replied that there were many individuals. 'The ones you mentioned were among them, but there were others as well, such as Levon Ter-Petrosyan, many wanted something like this, but it did not happen for one simple reason: the public did not allow it, and stability was maintained for the system.'