Will Pashinyan consider the “sleeve” of the video protected by the National Security Service?

A few days ago, at the “Zvartnots” airport, the second president of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, was not allowed to leave the territory of the Republic of Armenia, which he had no right to do, because, as factor.am– wrote, at that time he was not accused in any criminal proceedings, within the framework of which he was not allowed to leave the RA territory, which was confirmed by the court and investigative bodies.

But everything did not end there, not long after, the video of Robert Kocharyan being banned from leaving appeared on Nikol Pashinyan’s family. in the media.

The location and content of the camera allowed the media and various figures to claim that the video was from the surveillance cameras of the border checkpoint in “Zvartnots”.

Note that in 2024 on July 31, the representatives of the border guard service of the FSB of Russia handed over the state border of the “Zvartnots” air checkpoint to the protection of the Armenian side.

In what way did the footage recorded by the surveillance camera of the border checkpoint installed in “Zvartnots” get into the hands of the government media? We can make assumptions about the legality of that move. And both NSS director Andranik Simonyan and NSS border guard troops commander Garik Muradyan have their responsibility here.

Accordingly, how? 168.amGegham Manukyan, deputy of the Armenia faction of the National Assembly, said in a conversation with the National Security Service and the command of the border guard troops of the National Security Service about this issue.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” of Nikol Pashinyan’s family publishes a video almost immediately, and it is clear to the naked eye that it is from the camera installed at the checkpoint of the Zvartnots airport, that is, it belongs to the border guard troops of the RA National Security Service. And such a video and information can be released from the top-secret structure only by the decision of the top management and the execution of the Director of the National Security Service and the Commander of the Border Guard Forces. he emphasized, reminding that this is not the first such case.

About the rights of NSS border guard troops RA: in law specifically, it is said:

■ make appropriate notes in the documents giving the right to cross the state border, and if necessary, to temporarily take them, as well as to take fake documents, to prevent them from crossing the state border into the territory of the Republic of Armenia or from the territory of the Republic of Armenia persons who do not have the relevant documents giving the right to exit until the proper preparation of the documents giving them the right to cross the state border or the clarification of the circumstances of their loss of the documents,

■ in order to establish control over the maintenance of the state border regime, border regime and regime of state border crossing points, perform registration of persons, accounting of actual data, statistics and for these purposes, in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, use information systems,

■ carry out an investigation in cases related to their proceedings according to the law,

■ to carry out the prevention of the crimes against which the fight is within the jurisdiction of the border guard troops etc.

As for the responsibilities:

■ To ensure the fulfillment of the obligations related to the state border regime, which are provided by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and the international treaties of the Republic of Armenia,

■ prevent the regime of the state border of the Republic of Armenia, the border regime and actions of persons violating the regime of state border crossing points etc.

We repeat: the Border Guard troops are under the National Security Service, and the Security Service is directly subordinated to Nikol Pashinyan.

In particular, attached to Nikol Pashinyan’s decision of June 28, 2018 on approving the RA NSS statute and structure հավելվածի՝ In the section related to NSS administration and management, it is stated that “The National Security Service is managed by the Prime Minister.” And the director of the National Security Service “manages the organizations and institutions assigned to the national security service”.

And, according to the law and established կարգի՝ The tasks and functions of the NSS, in particular, are:

■ Participation in the development and implementation of measures for the protection of information constituting state and service secrets, control of the preservation of state and service secrets in state bodies, military formations, organizations, implementation of measures related to allowing citizens to access information constituting state and service secrets in the prescribed manner,

■ implementation of state control in the field of information security in accordance with the law, as well as Coordinating activities in the field of cryptographic and technical protection of information protected by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, defining a unified procedure for countering technical intelligence in the Republic of Armenia,

■ communication, information and data transmission systems, information protection means for coordinating activities and summarizing results in the national security service (including cryptographic protection measures) creation, national in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Armenia defining the order of recording, storage and use of operational, archival and other materials related to the activity of the security service, etc.

Is there a clause that allows the release of video belonging to the National Security Agency to a private media outlet, which we have witnessed more than once?

Let’s wait what the National Security Service and the command of the Border Guard troops will answer to the written requests of Gegham Manukyan, deputy of the “Armenia” faction, but they can already assume that the National Security Service and the command of the Border Guard troops, perhaps, crossed the limit of their powers.

And there is still a question: will Nikol Pashinyan, who is directly under the authority of the National Security Service and whose instructions he carried out, see his own responsibility in the incident?

Why do we say this? Back in April “Pashinyan “relinquished” his responsibility regarding the service of the NSS border guard forces” We are an article with a reprint to publish the basis for which was the following wording of Nikol Pashinyan regarding the service of border guards during the briefing organized after the Government session on April 30.

“I am the prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, but I may not know if there is a question about how the border guard of the Republic of Armenia performs his service, with what logic, because it is not a matter of my agenda.”

Of course, this was said more about the service of the border guards at the state border, but we can safely project it on the case described in the article, because it is not excluded that Nikol Pashinyan will not accept the extent of his responsibility in the distribution of the video and put it entirely on the command of the NSS and Border Guard troops.

By the way, from November 10, 2025, he was appointed as the commander of the border guard troops of the RA NSS Garik Muradyan is a military man, and served in Artsakh Armed Forces, then in the 3rd Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces, holding various positions, and during the first stage of the demarcation and demarcation process in Tavush, he was in military service in this sector. And now Nikol Pashinyan has entrusted him with the protection of the state border, if at first sight we accepted this positively at least in the sense that he is a military man and knows the “combat” protection of the borders, then now we have to make negative records.

—