General Secretary of RA Ministry of Internal Affairs on some nuances  of police reform program

ArmInfo.Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ara  Fidanyan does not agree with the prevailing opinion that as a result of reforms in the Police system, the number of high-profile cases has increased.

In a conversation with journalists on May 29, Fidanyan noted that the  Police are in a constant process of reform, which is due to a number  of circumstances, be it new legal regulations, new technical means,  etc.  For this reason, Fidanyan noted, it is simply inappropriate to  link high-profile cases with the reform process. "It cannot be argued  that from now on it is no longer possible to continue the reform  process, but one thing is clear: today, as a result of reforms,  serious positive developments can be recorded," the Secretary General  of the Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasized.

Answering a question about yesterday's incident, when a police  officer tried to "convince" a citizen of the importance of supporting  pro-government views in the Sardarapat complex, Fidanyan noted that  he could not comment on such a special case, since he had heard about  it for the first time. "In any case, the police have always performed  the functions assigned to them, namely the maintenance of public  order and security," Fidanyan said, urging not to separate the "red  berets" from other law enforcement officers. There are many facts  that show that not only official investigations, but also criminal  cases were carried out by abusing official powers. About 45 people  were fired from the police during 2023.

As part of the reforms, Fidanyan pointed to the formation of a police  guard, which will include internal troops and a state security  service. It is also planned to introduce a completely new model  associated with the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  In particular, instead of the department, there will be units of the  criminal police in Yerevan,, which will deal with the disclosure of  extremely grave and especially grave crimes. And instead of  departments, the municipal police will operate, which will  investigate crimes of medium and light gravity.