Gegham Manukyan: As long as Pashinyan is in power in Armenia, no law enforcement system will operate within the law.

ArmInfo. As long as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is in power in Armenia, no law enforcement system in the country will operate within the law. Gegham Manukyan, a member of the Armenian parliament from the opposition "Armenia" faction, stated this in a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly on August 27.

According to him, the Armenian prime minister has long been acting in the same way as Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, trying to emulate him in everything. "He probably thinks that if Aliyev can maintain a dictatorship for so many years, then why can't he? His rhetoric and Aliyev's are identical on the issue of Armenia's future and in their methods of action," the MP believes.

Commenting on the events surrounding the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, Manukyan noted that all of this is a manifestation of the personal, extreme vindictiveness that accompanies Pashinyan. "This is nothing more than a manifestation of vindictiveness on the part of an insecure individual. Because, on the one hand, we are dealing with a man (Kocharyan - ed.) who won and brought peace to the country, and on the other, with a man (Pashinyan - ed.) who suffered defeat in wars, walks around with his head down in the outside world, and brings hatred, hostility, and confrontation into our lives every day. Prison is for men. The second president of Armenia once went through this very courageously. But it is still very painful. The NSS detention center is very small, and this is a manifestation of human vileness - that father and son (Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak Kocharyan - ed.) are being held in the same detention center," the opposition leader noted.

According to the MP, the Armenian prime minister will continue to give orders to law enforcement agencies until one day he gives the order to enter his own homes. "These threats have already been made today. Thus, he has injected a new dose of fear into them, so they will carry out even more illegal decrees," Manukyan is confident.

Reacting to Pashinyan's statement that "it is necessary to find out who organized the leak that informed Robert Kocharyan and his family of the arrival of law enforcement," the MP noted that he is ready to name that person right now if they then "twist his arm and make him taste the asphalt." "That was Pashinyan from the parliamentary rostrum. Let him bury his head in the asphalt, since it was he who, after a question from Armenia faction MP Levon Kocharyan, began threatening and said that they would come to his home tomorrow. "As long as Pashinyan is in power, no law enforcement system will operate within the law," Manukyan concluded.

As a reminder, on the morning of August 25, security forces brought second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and his eldest son, Sedrak Kocharyan, to the Anti-Corruption Committee for questioning. At the same time, officers from the National Security Council of Armenia conducted searches at the apartment of Levon Kocharyan, a member of the opposition Armenia faction and the son of second President Robert Kocharyan. The searches lasted seven hours. It was also reported that searches were conducted at Robert Kocharyan's home and at dozens of addresses of companies owned by the Kocharyan family, as well as at the homes of directors of companies associated with the second president. Robert Kocharyan's condition, who underwent heart surgery about two weeks ago, sharply worsened during the investigation, and he was hospitalized. The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia announced that same day that Robert Kocharyan had been charged with large-scale money laundering, abuse of office, and bribery. An attempt was made to bring him to court, but due to his health issues, doctors prevented this. On August 26, at 8:00 a.m., the arrest warrant for the second president of Armenia expired. A second petition was subsequently filed. On August 27, the Anti-Corruption Committee announced that Robert Kocharyan had been placed under arrest for two months.

It should be added that criminal cases were initiated against nine individuals, including the former Minister of Defense and third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. Later, the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia reported that four of the six individuals detained the day before had been placed under arrest, including Sedrak Kocharyan. The court ordered him to remain in custody for two months. Another defendant, according to the source, was placed under house arrest. The Anti-Corruption Committee also reported that third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, also implicated in the case, had been placed under a travel restriction.