Photos of Vahe Ghazaryan and His Deputies Posted in Structures Under the Ministry of Internal Affairs

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports: "The Minister of Internal Affairs, Vahe Ghazaryan, and his deputies have a recognition or fetishization issue concerning themselves. The fact is that in the structures operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs—such as police departments and emergency services—it has been instructed to post pictures of Police Chief Vahe Ghazaryan and his deputies.

According to the hierarchy, there is a large picture of Vahe Ghazaryan at the top, with side-by-side images of his four deputies—David Hambaryan, Arpine Sargsyan, Aram Hovhannisyan, and Kamo Tsutsulyan—below. Several police officers confirmed the news in our conversations but provided different interpretations. For instance, one officer said that during Vladimir Gasparyan's term, their department also had a police chief's picture hanging, while another mentioned that individual officers had previously posted the emblem, pictures of Serzh Sargsyan, and the Catholicos in their offices, but this was done on their own initiative and funding.

Another officer remarked that it is very normal for the pictures of Ghazaryan and his deputies to be displayed in departments. According to him, this is done so that police officers can recognize their leaders by face, especially since ‘there is a change of deputies almost daily.’

We sent a written inquiry to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for an official explanation for this phenomenon, but the police have been violating the "Law on Freedom of Information" by not responding to our inquiry for the 8th day now, likely because it is not easy to concoct a reasonable explanation." More details in today's issue of the newspaper.