
ArmInfo.If Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is so brave, then let him liberate and return to the Armenian people the strategic positions in Syunik where the Azerbaijanis have established their military units. This was stated by Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), during the election campaign in the Armavir region.
According to the PAP leader, it is the current government's inability to negotiate that has led to Azerbaijan occupying Armenian territories and the Armenian prisoners of war being held in Baku. "He has done nothing for the Armenian people. He's lying when he says there won't be a so-called 'Western Azerbaijan' here. Meanwhile, from June 18th to 19th, Azerbaijan will hold a congress in Nakhichevan on the topic of 'Return to Western Azerbaijan.' Therefore, the Armenian people today essentially face a choice: vote for someone who 'builds churches or someone who destroys them,'" Tsarukyan emphasized.
The PAP leader also recalled Pashinyan's statements against Andranik Tevanyan, the number two candidate on their election list, that he is a 'traitor to the homeland.' According to Tsarukyan, the Armenian prime minister has made similar accusations against him. "But let him prove that I'm a spy. If he does, then I'll come to the square myself and let them shoot me." But if he can't prove it, then let him come and enter my lion's cage-a male lion, at that," Tsarukyan concluded.
On May 21, the Investigative Committee of Armenia announced the opening of a criminal case against Andranik Tevanyan for "treason and espionage." Tevanyan is accused of transferring information containing state secrets to a foreign state for $622,000. On the night of May 24, Tevanyan was placed under two-month arrest by court order. Moreover, according to Tevanyan's lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, there were no legal grounds for his client's arrest. It should be added that the opposition figure was detained on the direct orders of current Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Tevanyan himself called the investigation's allegations absurd, noting that he resigned his parliamentary mandate in 2023 and, therefore, such allegations by the Investigative Committee are baseless. Gagik Tsarukyan also demanded evidence of the espionage accusations against the party's number two candidate on the proportional list, Andranik Tevanyan, expressing confidence that everything said about Tevanyan is slander, and that he is a decent, courageous man and a patriot.