Upon Aravot Daily’s observation that criminal cases were opened against the former chief of police, the former head of the State Revenue Committee, the head of an organization owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, the former Minister of Defense, and several other high-ranking officials after he resigned, former head of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan said, “These are all criminal cases that were opened during my time in office. These are all based on information gathered during investigations carried out while I was the NSS leader. Criminal cases are not opened in one day. Let them look at these criminal cases and see who opened them.”
Referring to how he said, “Could you imagine if I started to speak without thinking about the consequences?” in his last interview and the response from My Step deputies stating that Artur Vanetsyan needs to speak up if he has information that would be of interest to the public, Vanetsyan said, “I want to be clear about one thing. If someone releases state secrets that they found out during their time in service, whether they are a soldier or not, they must be considered a national traitor. A person who reveals state secrets is a national traitor.”
When asked if he was referring to state secrets in his interview, Vanetsyan said, “No, I was not speaking about state secrets. I was speaking generally about what would happen if I spoke without thinking about the consequences.”
Aravot Daily asked Vanetsyan if he has information that would be of interest to the public and if he is staying quiet about it, he said, “Let’s not get into too much detail. If there is a need for me to speak about this in depth in another speech, I will do so. But it’s not necessary at the moment. Let’s just say that a person who reveals state secrets is a national traitor.”
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He also commented on criticism that it would have been impossible for the Prime Minister, NSS leader, and leaders of other power structures to have been wiretapped if a professional was in charge of the NSS. He also commented on statements that he was the one behind the wiretappings. “Questions about the wiretapping will be revealed in time. I cannot speak about that now because an investigation is underway. But when the results of the investigation are published and everything is disclosed, you will see that the NSS leader was a qualified professional and remains one.”
Arpine Simonyan
