Gagik Tsarukyan: I am ready for any development of situation

ArmInfo. Everything that has happened can be considered as a political case initiated by political order. This is stated in the statement of the leader of the  Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan regarding the search of his  house yesterday and following the NSS report on the initiation of a  number of criminal cases.

< Why is the government taking such a step? The answer is simple. In  connection with the pandemic of coronavirus, an extremely difficult  situation has developed in Armenia. In Armenia, there is a crisis in  the healthcare system, the terrible consequences of which the  population will still feel. The responsibility for tens of thousands  of patients and hundreds of death cases lies with the government with  its unforgivable frivolity. Even now, the government does not have a  clear strategy, and it does not represent the whole depth of the  problem. Hundreds of thousands were left alone in the face of  economic difficulties. Social tension in the country is growing every  hour. And what do the authorities do? Instead of resolving issues,  they used to intimidate opponents.

The law enforcement campaign against me, the initiation of criminal  cases began a few days ago, after my notorious speech (on March 5,  during a meeting of the PAP political council, Tsarukyan called for a  100% change in the composition of the government, Ed. note).  Honestly, that was to be expected. But at heart I had a faint hope  that the authorities would perceive the problems voiced in my speech  as an alarm, perceive the warning of a person well aware of the  economic situation in the country, accept their obvious mistakes and  try to find solutions to consolidate all their efforts.

I am grateful for all the messages of support voiced by political and  public circles. The choice is simple: to follow the path of competent  and joint solution to the problems of the country, or to follow the  path of intimidation of those who talk about these problems. I have  already made my choice. I am ready for any development of situation.  I appeal to our citizens: do not despair, we will overcome this  crisis, even if the authorities and personally Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan do everything possible to aggravate the situation. Today I  have only one desire: I want our country to get out of this  situation, but the current government is not able to do this>, the  statement says.

To recall, in the morning of June 14 searches were carried out in the  house of Tsarukyan. Then he went to the NSS for questioning. By  chance or not, the former Chairman of the Control  Chamber Ishkhan  Zakaryan, who was in close relations with Gagik Tsarukyan, was also  summoned to the NSS. Tsarukyan called the developments political  persecution, meanwhile, the NSS reported three criminal cases  involving the politician. So, according to the investigation, the  leadership and other members of the Prosperous Armenia party  distributed hundreds of millions of drams of election bribes in 2017  in accordance with well- developed schemes, and this was done under  the pretext of charity.

In another case, Tsarukyan's companies were involved in the  organization of the casino's illegal activities, resulting in damage  to the state of $ 60 million. Another criminal case concerns a  company associated with Tsarukyan, which illegally appropriated land,  and the state suffered damage of 342 million drams (about 685  thousand dollars). Yesterday, after calling Tsarukyan for  questioning, a number of his supporters took to the streets and made  attempts to block the movement. In respect of 252 persons,  administrative detention was applied.