ArmInfo.On May 11, after being signed by the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, the law “On Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property” entered into force. From now on, any incumbent or former government official, who failed to prove the lawfulness of the acquired property worth over 50 million drams, is deprived of it by a court decision. Meanwhile, earlier law enforcement officers had to prove the lawfulness of the property acquired by state officials.
This event, by and large, is the main news of recent weeks. Even though it was expected, it sidelined the most publicly discussed street and parliamentary fights of the Armenian lawmakers. It was this law that became the root cause of the inappropriate behavior of the “adequate” hooligans and the dense behavior of “bright” politicians. In fact, it was a rather provocative behavior, bait, which the representatives of the “stepping” majority so recklessly took, up to the level of the deputy speaker of the parliament. And the leadership of the ruling party itself, judging by the statements of individual lawmakers, the head of the parliamentary faction Lilit Makunts and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan himself, is well aware of the essence of the situation.
This is evidenced by the lightning-fast signing by the president of the law “On the confiscation of illegally acquired property” after a fight in parliament and the accompanying wave of fists. Meanwhile, before that, Armen Sarkissian, was not in particular hurry to sign it, observing all the terms and procedural framework necessary in such cases. It was the entry into force of the law that became the most painful and therefore the best response of the authorities to the ”willy-nilly” brawlers and most importantly to the ”patrons” of fistfights. It was a response to ”son-in-law” Mikael Minasyan (the latter’s most popular title). It was a response to his father-in-law – former president Serzh Sargsyan, a response to the environment of another former president Robert Kocharian. A response to dozens of robbers of state assets of the republican scale, a response to hundreds of lower-level robbers. It is clear that the law was developed and adopted by no means with the aim of confiscating from small election fraudsters of garages and ugly booths built in the “green zones”. And not even the mansions of the “republican” bureaucrats who gave permits for illegal construction to their “stooges” for their loyal service. The law was adopted in relation to specific individuals, several dozen families that have appropriated the national wealth of the Armenian people over the past two decades.
In this light, it is noteworthy that the accelerated implementation of the Judicial and Legal Reform (Vetting) Strategy for 2019-2023 adopted in 2019, follows the law “On Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property”. Very briefly, the essence of the vetting is to clean up the judges who still continue to work, protecting the “formers” from fair punishment and to replace them with young judges who are ready, , to take verdicts in cases relating to the confiscation of looted state property.
According to Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, in the recent decade alone, the turnover of illegal economic activity in Armenia amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, all these cases under investigation are interconnected, and unprecedented in scope. Illegal business was carried out through hundreds of formal business entities, however, it was coordinated from one or two centers. So far, only certain parts of this complex of cases have been published regarding Mikael Minasyan and Gagik Khachatryan.
The state apparatus, in particular its force sector, acts extremely slowly and indecisively. The main reason is the affiliation of a number of “agents”, investigators, judges, why not, the heads of departments with people, whom they have to dispossess and put in jail. The last manifestation of this unpleasant phenomenon was the escape of the actual owner of Ucom Gurgen Khachatryan from the investigation. The son of the former super minister Gagik Khachatryan became aware of the change of the measure of restraint against him to arrest long before it was announced. The hastened appointment of Argishti Kharamyan as deputy director of the National Security Service testified that the authorities are aware of such a situation. The compelled reason for the appointment of a 29-year-old non-systemic worker to this post is obvious: Prime Minister Pashinyan simply does not trust the director of the National Security Service Eduard Martirosyan, recently appointed by him. It is clear that under such conditions, radical reform + shake-up of personnel in the NSS, the Police, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Special Investigation Service, and all other “bodies” is a necessity. Without this, there will simply be no one to implement the law “On Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property”.
Nevertheless, we see that, the law enforcement system urged on by the prime minister, who, in turn, is urged by the society, with the support of parliament, nevertheless grabbed the criminal corruption octopus by the ends of its limbs. And the octopus immediately began to move all the limbs it had: all those Danielyans, Marukyans and other servants of the former comprador regime, which is slowly but surely transforming into the fifth column. There is no point in responding to this demagoguery, hysterical cries of this entire hired public, let alone beating them. This will only lead in the future to the transformation of an empty space into a political factor. Prime Minister Pashinyan’s attempts to justify the broken nose of an adequate (member of the Adequate movement) and slam to the ”political corpse” with “psychological pressure” on the authorities are completely meaningless.
“My step”, especially Pashinyan, should have been prepared for such provocations and pressure, respectively, they just do not deserve justification for the weakness shown. Any in-depth reforms are always paid for by the loss of popularity of those who carry them out. Given the specifics of the Armenian realities, young reformers need to be prepared not only to lose the rating, but also to similar theatrical performances. The only alternative is the surrender of power to the “formers”, the methods of which against predecessor successors will be far from being velvet.
In this light, the main thing for the authorities is to continue to go all the way along the planned path. To go steadily, systematically, not paying attention to debris lying under their feet and even biting. In the end, the authorities simply have no other choice. Deprivation of the robbers of the loot is the landmark and, accordingly, the last possibility of revenge has been obviously chosen correctly. Along the way, it is necessary to take total control of all major financial flows in the country, from the country, and even into the country. The activities of the Tsarukians, Aleksanyans, and other oligarchs newly-reincarnated into businessmen should be taken under the control of, the regulator at least. It is necessary to adopt and implement several more initiatives and laws, including, of course, the reform of the Constitution. If this task is finally formed, or even achieved, all these ”bright adequates” will automatically sink into the swamp, as quickly as they emerged from there. And finally, new people, new political forces, new ideas, a new opposition to the authorities, and accordingly, a new future for Armenia will take the place of ”Marukyans”. After all, in the 21st century, the technologies are the one to make politics and not obscene and slap-blows. The ruling majority bears full responsibility for the transition from fists and swearing to systemic, fundamental, institutional policies and the consequences of the absence of this transition. And it is time for the ruling majority and, of course, the “face” of the authorities- Prime Minister Pashinyan to realize this.