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.