Category: News

«My speech is dedicated to the sectoral issues of the Finance and Budget Committee, in particular, the state budget and financial control. Why, because it is obvious that proper financial control over the effective and rational use of state budget funds will be the basis for a stable economy of our state. And in this context, I attach great importance to the effective spending of state budget funds and control over them in the field of state procurement,” Hasmik Yengoyan, a member of the “Strong Armenia” opposition faction, said today in the National Assembly.

He spoke about the following issues in his speech.

Issues in the field of public procurement

“Why am I talking about public procurement, dear colleagues, because the state budget funds are approximately up to 45% is spent in this sector (the rest is salaries, social security payments and military spending). It is natural that if it is possible to spend that 45% of the budget effectively, we will have real savings and a really strong economy. In this context, one of the most important functions of this commission should be effective financial control.

And what do we really have? In fact, the control system that was working at least until 2022, at the initiative of the government and the law passed by the National Assembly, was fundamentally destroyed.

More objective. In 2022, the government presented to the National Assembly a project by which the system of complaints of businessmen in the field of public procurement was significantly revised, and, I will not be afraid of this word, worsened: The rights of businessmen in this area were significantly reduced, which brings and will bring serious corruption risks,” he said.

Changes to the appeals system and their implications

“Until 2022, in the case of disputes related to purchases, when businessmen noticed obvious illegalities on the part of state bodies, they had the opportunity to appeal it to a special judicial administrative body, called “Complaint Examiner”:

In 2022, at the initiative of the government, that body was dissolved and the opportunity to investigate complaints was given exclusively to the courts:

It seems that this is just a legal dispute and not very interesting, but what actually happened?

• Loss of accessibility. Previously, business owners could apply for services without a lawyer, as the procedure was easy and cheap. Now, when the question has been submitted to the courts, businessmen have to bear huge costs by resorting to legal services (which, by the way, have also entered the field of VAT and have also become more expensive).
• Unbelievable increase in state taxes. With the same package, the Law “On State Duty” was also amended. Determined for examination of tender complaints The state tax of 20,000 drams became up to 10 million drams:

Imagine the situation. if the entrepreneur sees that the invitation to tender is discriminatory, is written “for a specific company”, or was illegally rejected in order to recognize the winner of the participant who offered a more expensive price in second place, and wants to restore his right, he has to pay a fee of 1% of the price of the given procurement procedure (tenders).

If, for example, tenders worth 1 billion drams are disputed, the state fee for the lawsuit submitted to the court for the recognition of the right can be up to three instances. 30 million dramsnot including legal fees,” noted the lawyer MP.

Systemic problems and corruption risks

“As a result of all this, businessmen and thinking people have a valid impression that the ruling power with this project simply does not want the field of tenders to be disputed, so that the state bodies can do what they want in this field. Businessmen refrain from going to court, fearing to lose those enormous sums, because they enter into a kind of “war” with the state.

This is problematic even for judges. If the judge approves the claim, he has to make a decision to return the state tax (for example, 10 or 20 million AMD) to the business owner. While in case of private disputes money is taken from one company and given to another, here the other side is the state, and the money must be returned from the state budget.

Thus, the right to effective judicial protection has been limited at the legislative level, which will definitely lead to the flourishing of real corruption schemes and mechanisms in the field of public procurement (45% of the budget). There is no control, there is no institution of punishment,” said Hasmik Yengoyan.

Judgments without consequences

“To the credit of our courts, even under the conditions of this huge financial burden, there are businessmen who fought for their rights, and there are many satisfied claims. Courts have often found that invitations to tender contain discriminatory requirements, impose conditions that serve the interests of a particular company, and wrongfully reject bidders.

Dear colleagues, a question arises. How many official investigations have been assigned to those guilty evaluation commissions and heads of clients? I have not received such information. But doesn’t the ruling power already have a legally effective judicial act, where the illegality committed in the field of state tenders has been recorded in black and white? Were the aforementioned persons punished? Of course not, which once again suggests that corruption is flourishing in this area.

I can say a lot more about purchases, purchases made by one person and blacklists, but considering that my time is limited, I will use this opportunity next,” concluded the member of the “Strong Armenia” faction.

Details in the video.

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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the country’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, a “foreign agent” and once again accused him of unleashing a war in August 2008. Kobakhidze made this statement on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the war with Russia.

“We accuse Saakashvili’s bloody regime of starting the war. At that time, this country formally had a traitorous commander-in-chief. Saakashvili is a shameful, dirty foreign agent,” he said, adding that the third president tried to “attribute to himself” the heroism of the Georgian soldiers who died while defending the homeland.

Responding to the journalists’ question whether the authorities’ statements do not discredit their own country and its defenders, Kobakhidze noted that it was the “Georgian Dream” government that defended the honor of the Georgian soldier in the international arena. According to him, the authorities managed to prove that “the Georgian soldier did not commit war crimes” at the international courts in The Hague and Strasbourg.

In addition to accusations of starting the war, Kobakhidze questioned the legitimacy of Saakashvili’s rule in 2008. According to his claim, the extraordinary presidential elections held in January 2008 were “completely falsified”, which became one of the main factors determining the tragic Escalation.

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“It is symbolic that not only the President of the National Assembly, but also the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the National Assembly is the beneficiary of a grant for a research project in Turkey with questionable circumstances and funding in the National Assembly of Armenia (NA). And this is not the only thing that connects Ruben Rubinyan and Sargis Khandanyan. Both of them showed a discriminatory attitude during the reception of the citizens declared by them, and due to the fact of Mr. Khandanyan’s alleged crime, public criminal proceedings have also been initiated by the court’s decision, and I am waiting for the mediation of the Prosecutor General in that case as well,” said Edgar Ghazaryan, deputy of the National Assembly “Strong Armenia” faction, in his speech during the discussion of the candidacy of Sargis Khandanyan, who was nominated for the position of the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the National Assembly.

“One of the deputies said in this hall, should the Catholicos of All Armenians be tried if his car runs through a red light? Going through a red light is an administrative offense, and no one is prosecuted for it, and if administrative liability is applied, it is not against the passenger, but against the driver. I have not yet heard that the driver of His Holiness was brought to administrative responsibility for such a matter, but I have heard that the Prime Minister’s motorcade passing through a red light killed a pregnant woman, and for that, neither the Prime Minister, nor his security officers, nor the police officer who received that order were punished and held accountable for their actions.

Maybe if that driver was a bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church instead of being a police major, he would be immediately prosecuted, when our bishops are prosecuted without any real criminal act,” said Edgar Ghazaryan.

The latter reminded, what did Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan say in this regard back on June 20, 2013, in an interview given to “Azatutyun” radio station. Quote:

“There is a saying, isn’t there, that if you kill one person, you are a murderer, and if you kill thousands, you become an outstanding military leader.”

End of quote. Now let’s understand how a journalist became a “prominent military leader” with shady agreements with government officials.

“After being elected Prime Minister on May 8, 2018, when he went to Stepanakert in May, he made a statement that he is no longer going to negotiate on behalf of Artsakh, he is authorized to negotiate only on behalf of Armenia. He never said that thesis when he was a candidate for the prime minister on May 2 or May 8. that thesis was put forward only after he was elected prime minister, and after that he repeated that thesis in the National Assembly when presenting the government’s program, and on August 17, 2018, in Republic Square, on the 100th day of his tenure. Quote:

“I want to say the following: I said that I am ready to fully negotiate on the Karabakh issue on behalf of the Republic of Armenia, but the government of the Republic of Artsakh should negotiate on behalf of the Republic of Artsakh.”

What did this mean? This meant that the official negotiator of the Armenian side officially and unilaterally left the negotiation process from the internationally accepted negotiation format, which was the format of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, without consulting the other main negotiating party, the president of Azerbaijan, and most importantly, the leaders of the OSCE Minsk co-chairman states.

And what happens when there is a conflict and the negotiator withdraws from the negotiation, leaving the conflict in the stage of development or stagnation? It leads to war. And when did the war take place (we are talking about the 44-day war – E.K.), in the 2.5 years of Nikol Pashinyan’s tenure as Prime Minister? 2.5 years is half of the maximum term of the National Assembly’s powers, and therefore of the government. During those 2.5 years, he had the opportunity to negotiate and present theses acceptable to the Armenian side (if there was the Almaty Declaration that was in 1991, or other theses – E.K.) as a negotiating party, but he did not do it,” said the opposition deputy.

He also reminded that during the entire term of office, from 2018 until the 44-day war, Nikol Pashinyan had only one official negotiation with Ilham Aliyev, just one. It happened on March 29, 2019 in Vienna, in which the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group participated, and the meeting was organized with their efforts.

“Before and after that meeting, he met with Ilham Aliyev many times. remember during the opening of the World Cup in Moscow, during the security conference in Bishkek, Munich, during various economic forums. None of them were formal negotiations.

And what happened instead of official negotiations? Suspicious meetings of heads of special services of Armenia and Azerbaijan in third countries, including Dubai. The former director of the National Security Service, Artur Vanetsyan, admitted that he had a meeting with the head of the National Security Service of Azerbaijan at least once a month, at regular intervals, in third countries. Naturally, none of those meeting had the right to negotiate, because they were not diplomats or foreign ministers, none of the OSCE Minsk co-chairs were present at any of those meetings, and during those meetings sealed envelopes addressed to each other by the heads of state were exchanged, the contents of which none of us have any information to this day.

And here are these secret agreements, bypassing the international format that was dissolved on August 8, 2025 in Washington, among other documents (including the initialing of the so-called “peace” document – E.G.), therefore, bypassing that format, the “great general” went to war. He went to war, causing irreparable loss of life to our people, the lives of thousands of young people, to our state, to the Defense Army alone, causing material damage of around 5 billion dollars during those 44 days. According to the most approximate estimates, the total damage to Artsakh’s civil facilities is estimated at about 100 billion dollars, Edgar Ghazaryan noted.

He asked a rhetorical question: and what did the authors of all this get in return? Bonus payments… they rewarded themselves with funding not provided for by law, they bought houses, private houses, making houses for hundreds and thousands of people.

“And what did they do after the results of that war?” Capitulation, war again in 2021, new capitulation, violation of all negotiation formats, dubious processes that led to October 6, 2022, which was preceded by the Jermuk war, after that again war in Artsakh in September 2023, new capitulation, Tavush surrender. This is the face of this government: war, victims, losses and rewards.

And when they ask the MP how his uncle is, he happily answers that thank God, uncle is fine. May the uncle be well, but my uncle cannot be well, where his namesake grandson, Aghajan Janoyan (whose baptismal godfather I am), a first-year student of the Mkhitar Heratsi State Medical University, died in that war. My uncle and I can never be good, we can never be good. We would be fine if Aghajan Janoyan became the military doctor of his dream and saved the lives of our soldiers, which you are trying to manipulate here,” Edgar Ghazaryan finished his speech, after which the situation became tense.

“Mr. Ghazaryan, behave properly, you are getting a warning because of your incorrect and arrogant behavior. And I warn you, dear colleagues, keep quiet. And I warn you that next time after such behavior, if you do not evacuate from this hall, you will be evacuated and thrown out of this hall and the building of the National Assembly,” said Hayk Konjoryan, chairman of the session, addressing Edgar Ghazaryan.

Narek Karapetyan, the leader of the faction, intervened in the situation.

“Mr. Karapetyan, you can’t speak now, I suggest that you call your deputy to order and moderate him, otherwise he will be moderated in such a way that he can never go beyond the limits again. Now you can’t, now please…” After these words, Hayk Konjoryan noticed that the CP deputies were leaving the NA plenary session hall.

Addressing the deputies of his own faction, he said: “Dear colleagues, from the “Civil Pact” faction, please return to the hall. Dear colleagues, Mr. Levonyan, where are you going, take your seats, take your seats, the session continues. Go back to the hall, take your seats.”

Details in the video.

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Arman Yeghoyan, a member of the National Assembly “Civil Agreement” faction, stated from the podium of the Parliament that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has become an object of international trade, and asked what is its ultimate goal when sufficient resources have been spent. The CP deputy also claimed that during the First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s reign, the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide was not on the foreign political agenda of RA.

RPA GM member Eduard Sharmazanov 168.amin a conversation with the representative of the government, he referred to the statements and the theses put forward.

“It is not news that the “Civil Contract” party refused to consider the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a foreign policy priority. But today I can’t help but refer to the speech of the CP guise, I consider it as the official position of the “Civil Agreement” party.

He tried to question the purpose of the international recognition of the Genocide, asking what the end result was, what did it give to the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people. With this, he tries to nullify the efforts and results that have been achieved over the decades. Now let’s first fix what Genocide is.

First, genocide is not only a crime committed against a particular nation or ethnic group, but also a crime against universal values. It is absolutely reprehensible. It is no coincidence that not only in the case of the Armenian Genocide, but also, for example, the Holocaust, we have a long chain of international recognition and condemnation.  In other words, progressive humanity must condemn genocides.

Secondly, in the case of the Armenian Genocide, as early as May 24, 1915, the governments of France, Russia and Great Britain called the mass murders of Armenians “a crime against humanity and civilization,” he noted.

Referring to Yeghoyan’s other thesis that they are not the first to refuse to consider the recognition of the Genocide as a foreign policy priority, and that in 1991-1998 Sharmazanov said that it was not a state priority even during the time of the first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

“Of course it is, but there is a big but. unlike Nikol Pashinyan’s regime and Nikol Pashinyan, the first government of RA, Ter-Petrosyan, did not say that the agenda of international recognition of the Genocide is a foreign narrative, imported from other places, referring to the Russians. The government of the first president did not say that we still need to understand why and how the Genocide happened, the reasons for it, like another CP hypocrite, he did not say that we should take out the names of 1.5 million martyrs individually, that is, he did not question it. Parallels are incompatible. Yes, under both Ter-Petrosyan and Nikol Pashinyan, this issue was not a priority, but like Pashinyan, Ter-Petrosyan did not say why they didn’t talk about the Genocide in the 1930s, but they started talking about it in the 1950s.”

“The CP deputy says that he did not recognize any state at RA’s request, and that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has several reasons: it is the Armenian diaspora, the relations of these countries with Turkey, that is, according to him, when this issue became a priority of the political agenda, it did not bring any benefit.

The main goal of the condemnation and recognition of the genocide is to condemn the crimes of the past so that new crimes are not repeated.  Both in the Pan-Armenian Declaration and in 2015, during the entire term of office of President Serzh Sargsyan and the Republican Party, the best prevention solution was condemnation, because if you do not condemn past crimes, there is a risk of new crimes and crimes. When Nikol Pashinyan and his government changed its course in recognizing the genocide after 2020, a new crime occurred in 2023.

In the case of Latvia, it was a process that started during my time. And fortunately, the Republic of Armenia is not the only government, there are also opposition forces. The opposition forces have their own connections and have been in contact with our partners until the end, both with Potapkin, and with Inese, and with Klementevs, the Latvian Parliament, which recognized the Armenian Genocide. With the ethnic cleansing of the people of Artsakh, the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan were freed. As a result, there are no Armenians in Artsakh today. What was the end result, the end result of the international recognition of the Genocide is the condemnation of that crime by the international community, as it happened in the case of the Holocaust, so that new crimes are not repeated. This is a clear goal. And when they didn’t do it… Not only did they not do it, but they did the opposite. We witnessed how this led to the new genocidal policy of Azerbaijan. Their silence, inaction and, perhaps, silent justification led to the fact that today there are no Armenians in Artsakh,” said the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

Has the recognition of the Genocide not become an object of international trade, as the CP deputy claims, the Republican figure responded.

“Who did we trade with? we had our clear red lines. Azerbaijan and Turkey are a threat to us, and we have advanced our agenda. In 2015, more than 100 delegations of the world powers, the Pope, Putin, Hollande, were here.

Not to mention that Nikol Pashinyan considers himself a “bastion of democracy”. How can the bastion of democracy not consider the condemnation of the crime committed against humanity and the Armenian nation to be its priority? After all, the basis of democracy is human rights, and the main purpose of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide was precisely that: to condemn and prevent, so that the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan are not free to do what they want.

Next, Yeghoyan alludes to closed borders in his speech. Dear CP members, who closed the borders? Even during the reign of the First President, in 1993, after the Karvachar operation, Turkey closed the border, this is a well-known fact. No government in Armenia, including Serzh Sargsyan’s government, was against the opening of the borders with Turkey, moreover, Serzh Sargsyan initiated “football diplomacy” without establishing relations with preconditions. Turkey set preconditions, and Serzh Sargsyan sent those protocols to the writer’s bosom.

During the period of Serzh Sargsyan’s rule (2008-2018), not only the international recognition of the Genocide gained new momentum, but also the criminalization of denial was carried out in a number of countries. Including, with the efforts of your humble servant, Cyprus criminalized the denial of the Armenian Genocide. On the territory of Cyprus, they have no right to deny the Armenian Genocide, it is criminalized, and its purpose was also prevention.

A democratic state cannot not condemn past crimes against humanity, when, until past crimes are not condemned, there is a risk of new crimes, which happened in the case of Artsakh.  The answer to Yeghoyan’s question is exactly this: whenever the government of Armenia is silent, a new disaster comes. “The international recognition of the genocide came from the security of the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia, to keep Turkey’s hands away from Artsakh,” said Eduard Sharmazanov.

The opposition figure remarked, “They say, ‘it didn’t do anything.’ How is it that when we go to those international forums, we see how the entire diplomatic corps of Turkey and Azerbaijan fills the parliaments of the countries where the issue of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is discussed? Why do they do that, if it “gives nothing?” He says one more thing: “Well, the Genocide was recognized during our government as well.” During your rule, it was recognized, first of all, because there was the Armenian diaspora, Hay Dat.

“As for the case of Latvia, it was a process that started during my time. Fortunately, the Republic of Armenia is not only the government. there are also opposition forces that have their own international connections. We have been in contact with our partners until the end, as a result of which the Latvian parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide.

The Republican Party used all its resources in the EPP (European People’s Party), in Russia, in India, and in contacts with the Chinese Communist Party. Wherever we spoke, we served the interests of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh.

And now to stand up and say, “What did it matter, what is the end result?”… This is like saying, “If you are going to die, why were you born?” It is a stupid approach.

The Jewish people or Israel condemning the holocaust, what does it mean? If someone says something like that in the Israeli parliament, society will hold him in contempt,” remarked Eduard Sharmazanov.

In this context, Sharmazanov once again reiterated that the international recognition of the Genocide is a matter of human rights protection, so the crimes committed against humanity must be condemned. Second, it aims to prevent new crimes, which the ruling party did not prevent, and ethnic cleansing took place in Artsakh.

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