“Transparency International” anti-corruption center organized a discussion entitled “Corruption and Security Challenges”. Political scientist, ACNIS Director Manvel Sargsyan spoke about the connection between the April war and corruption: “People, specialists, political scientists asked the government clear, simple questions about the April war, but nobody gave us the answers to those questions. Then reports were released stating that the gasoline and the fuel were of low quality, the technique was out of order, etc. After that, personnel changes started. If there were no answers to these questions, why did they start changing the generals? There was no answer”.
Manvel Sargsyan said that when there is a flourishing corruption, there is no faith in the government’s actions: “No one will believe that the soldier has been judged fairly. The majority will definitely say that this was unfair, he was a scapegoat, that one to be punished was not punished. No one will believe. This is the most serious problem. Maybe even what happens, does not entirely correspond to people’s perception, but that is secondary, the primary thing is that it makes everyone sceptical. In this case this is a matter of life and death, but could be not that serious in another”.
Manvel Sargsyan said that as we have the Karabakh conflict, and we sit at the negotiation table with the enemy, again, there is scepticism about the negotiation process, no one knows what our authorities are talking about at that table, there is no mechanism to check what our officials are talking about with our enemies: “During the April war, many concrete issues emerged, decisions were made that were qualified as decisions contrary to national interests, in favour of other states. The questions were raised, and there was again no reply. And this is already a corruption that already creates problems for national security”.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
