Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the solemn session dedicated to the Investigative Committee employee’s day.
The Prime Minister congratulated the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Argishti Kyaramyan and all the employees on the occasion of the professional day.
Nikol Pashinyan noted that consistent work is being done to improve the quality of preliminary investigation in the country, and that work yields positive results. According to the Prime Minister, the policy adopted by the Government has the following logic: no innocent person should be prosecuted and no guilty person should remain unaccountable.
“In general, I think that we should see the solutions to all our problems in the degree of accomplishment of our country, our state and institutions. Because whatever we talk about here, whatever problem we talk about in our country, in the end, we will come to some institutional problem and the cause-and-effect relationships arising from it.
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When speaking about security sector, we can already say that our gaps are expressed among others, including the justice sector, because all the problems and failures that we see, they are also a consequence of, for example, criminal cases that were not previously opened or were wrongly terminated, inconsistency of criminal and general justice, sometimes partiality, sometimes selectiveness, and our political approach is and we move in that way that all these phenomena should be excluded,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
The Prime Minister emphasized that reforms in justice sector and other reforms are of primary importance, because all, including security issues, should be able to be solved with an adequate reform agenda.
“We have really implemented and are implementing very wide reforms in recent years. From January 1, 2024, there will be two investigative bodies in Armenia: the Investigative Committee and the Anti-Corruption Committee. We have made these decisions as a result of very long and deep discussions, studies, and it is also our vision of institutionalization that has led to such decisions. I want to emphasize that from this year all investigation operations and interrogations in the Republic of Armenia take place under cameras. I think this is also a very important change that ranks Armenia among civilized countries. Also, with this, we encourage professional investigators who know how to work on criminal cases with intellectual means, knowing and mastering psychological nuances, being able to evaluate the power of precise and accurate facts, their persuasiveness and so on,” said the Prime Minister.
Nikol Pashinyan also emphasized the almost doubling of salaries in the Investigative Committee. “By the way, the Investigative Committee is not the only one in this regard, during this period we had salary increases both in the judicial system and in the prosecutor’s office. The Anti-Corruption Committee was founded with high salaries from the beginning. I want to emphasize that, of course, this expresses our confidence in our investigative bodies and the justice system, but also my personal approach to this issue is as follows: there is an institutional issue here, and an issue of effectiveness, and an issue of protecting the rights of citizens.
Recently, when we were discussing and wanted to understand what salary changes have taken place in the prosecutor’s office, courts, investigative system, and when those rates were put on my table, I want to say directly that as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, I felt very good, including for the fact that today many officials of the Investigative Committee receive more than the prime minister, sometimes even twice as much. Some say is this normal or not normal? I consider that this is more than normal, because this is the way and the means to ensure institutional independence and effectiveness,” the Head of the Government stressed.
The Prime Minister noted that the change in salary is aimed at increasing the quality of that service. “That service is called justice, rule of law, inevitability of responsibility. We want to expect and we really expect that no innocent person will be persecuted in the Republic of Armenia. I mean, not only criminal prosecution, but protection from other prosecutions is also the job of the Investigative Committee, the job of our law enforcement system. People can be subjected to all kinds of illegal persecution. It is very important that we, as a result of the work of the Investigative Committee and also of the law enforcement system, set a task to reveal a number of systemic flaws that cause harm, and to eliminate those systemic flaws.”
Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the Investigative Committee carries out a very important function in the sense of ensuring the revenues of the state budget of Armenia, applying coercive measures against those who evade tax payments. “The Investigative Department of the State Revenue Committee was transferred to the Investigative Committee system this year. I am also glad to see that the operational services of the State Revenue Committee are effectively cooperating with the relevant department of the Investigative Committee. In this regard, this year we were faced with, so to speak, new technological ways of evading paying taxes.
I also want to draw your attention to the fact that the revealing even one major case is not enough at all, because if this mechanism exists, assuming that only one or two businessmen are using this mechanism would be at least naive on our part. I have presented this problem to the SRC, other competent bodies, this problem has also been put before the Investigative Committee, so that we can consistently continue, so that we can eradicate this logic of avoiding taxes by technological and non-technological means from the Republic of Armenia, because the unpaid tax is the lack of education of our children, the lack of infrastructure necessary for them to have proper physical training, the scarcity of proper health services, non solution of various problems in the security sector,” said the Prime Minister.
According to the Head of the Government, the reforms in the justice sector also aim to promote economic development. “Everyone should have the opportunity to freely carry out proper and legal economic activities. Despite all our security challenges, we have no problems with economic, macroeconomic stability. There is only one reason for this, because there really is an opportunity for free economic activity in the Republic of Armenia, and it gave us the opportunity, allowed us to ensure macroeconomic stability, so that we do not have negative chain effects arising from this,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
Referring to the existing problems in the security sector, the Prime Minister noted. “We are very sorry for the emerging problems in our country, especially in the field of security. It is very difficult to find a person who does not feel this pain at the genetic level, but look, in Armenia in 2023, criminal cases are revealed regarding exemption from military service in exchange for bribes, fraud. Who do those things do? Dear colleagues, let’s record this, the people with the highest rank: doctors and soldiers. This reveals deep socio-psychological contradictions. We need to understand, well, what has happened to us and what is happening to us? But on the other hand, it should be very clear, all this is a red line for us, because this is where the problems arise.
Although it should be noted again that we should not deceive ourselves that we understand all the problems and recognize all the challenges that are before us. Look today, events are happening in the world that do not fit into any formula or logic, and the world, reality, relations are in a very dynamic process, and I say again, our solution for this is to make institutional reforms so that our state and the public organism to be as healthy as possible. There is only one way to be healthy: to consistently fight against diseases, ailments, gaps. One of the most important missions on its way belongs to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia. And I want to wish you and all of us good luck on this journey.”
Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the most important demand in the Republic of Armenia was and continues to be justice, the rule of law, and the inevitability of responsibility. “And again I want to remind, urge and ask all of you that two directions are extremely important: no innocent person should be prosecuted and no guilty person should avoid responsibility. The consistent implementation of this formula today, tomorrow and forever is the greatest service to the motherland, the Republic of Armenia.
And I want to thank you and express my belief that today that formula is the basis of everyone’s work”, said the Head of the Government.
Nikol Pashinyan noted that when he is told that someone has been falsely accused, his first reaction is that it is not possible, because there is no authority in the Republic of Armenia that would give such an instruction and there are no investigators in the Republic of Armenia, who would carry out that instruction. “Justice, the rule of law and the inevitability of responsibility must work in the Republic of Armenia. And I want to wish you, expect and believe that you stand firmly in the position of defending these principles, these values, because these values are the basis of the sovereignty, independence and future of the Republic of Armenia,” said the Prime Minister.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
