ArmInfo. If my arrest increases salaries and pensions, creates new jobs, and solves the Karabakh issue, then let them arrest me. Headof the Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan stated this at a meeting with representatives of Gegharkunik region.
Meanwhile, the leader of the PAP did not fail to notice that his arrest not only would not resolve any issues, but rather the opposite. Tsarukyan in his speech also touched upon the socio-economic situation, noting that due to the coronavirus, an economic crisis has matured in the country, and a number of representatives of certain sectors have been unemployed for months. At the same time, according to him, the voice of the protesters remains unheard by the Government.
In this regard, Tsarukyan pointed out the need to develop appropriate assistance programs with the involvement of experts in specific areas. The politician also called for a review of agricultural loans, promising that the PAP, for its part, will raise the issue. In his speech, Tsarukyan also criticized the reforms in the field of education concerning the reduction of the hours of the "Armenian language" subject and the removal from the school curriculum as a separate subject of the "History of the Armenian Church". The party leader also called the ratification of the Istanbul Convention shameful, recalling that his party opposed it.
"I have already said that we are organizing a meeting so that the voice of the people can be heard," Tsarukyan stressed.
Earlier, Tsarukyan was deprived of his parliamentary immunity, and the parliament also approved a petition to imprison him. The charges against Tsarukyan were brought forward on the basis of part 2 of Article 154.2 (bribery of voters) of the RA Criminal Code. To recall, on June 14 searches were carried out in his house, after which he was summoned to the NSS for interrogation. Tsarukyan described what was happening as a political persecution, while the NSS reported on three criminal cases in which the politician appears. Thus, according to the investigation, the leadership and other members of the Prosperous Armenia Party, in accordance with clearly developed schemes, distributed hundreds of millions of drams in pre- election bribes in 2017, and this was done under the pretext of charity. In another case, Tsarukyan's companies were involved in organizing illegal casino activities, as a result of which the state suffered $ 60 million in damage. Another criminal case concerns a company associated with Tsarukyan, which illegally appropriated land plots, and the state suffered 342 million drams (about $ 685,000) in damage.