ArmInfo. The newly elected Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan from now on will live in a government mansion. "Tomorrow, I will move to the state mansion with my family, as it is stipulated by law," Pashinyan said the night before in his video message on Facebook.
According to Pashinyan, the former President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the former head of the Constitutional Court, now the Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Harutyunyan, reside in the complex of government buildings. "Sargsyan will soon move in. Another mansion will be offered to him, and as for Gagik Harutyunyan, lawyers should study how consistent with the legislation is his residence there," Pashinyan said. He explained that this is by law and if the mansion is empty, then "there can be an impression that there is no prime minister in the country". The Armenian prime minister assured that he will show the mansion on the air so that citizens know what they are paying taxes for. It should be noted that on the eve of the government session it was decided to solve the housing issue of the retired President Serzh Sargsyan within a month. Acting head of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, David Harutyunyan, presenting the draft decision, recalled the government decree of March 29, 2018, according to which one of the seven Kond mansions was transferred to the third president of Armenia as a free-of-charge property. However, already on April 19, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan during the government meeting refused to own the government mansion, suggesting that the next Cabinet decide to provide housing for the retired president when "another person is sitting in the prime minister's chair." "Today, the head of the government is another person and in pursuance of his mandate, we propose to adopt a new draft decision, and the right to use this social guarantee is granted to the retired president by law," Harutyunyan said. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that, in fact, there was a privatization of one of the government mansions and as a result of subsequent events, it became necessary to recognize this part of the government's decision as invalid and to find other ways to resolve it within the framework of the law.
To note, "government dachas", located in the center of Yerevan in the protected area of the Hrazdan Gorge, were built in Soviet times. The leaders of the republic usually lived there, but after the resignation they all moved from there. And only for Serzh Sargsyan was an exception.