Yerevan daily: Armenian PM stops trusting associates

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's distrust of his associates has reached a boiling point, and he has instructed that the data on their property be checked.

The statement came from the Yerevan-based daily Hraparak, which cited its unnamed sources, Caliber.Az reports.

"The prime minister instructed law enforcement officers to investigate the property of Civil Contract party representatives, their relatives and affiliated persons, including friends, in order to determine who and how wealthy they are," the newspaper reports.

It is noted that Pashinyan decided to collect a dossier on all members of his team and keep them in constant fear.

According to the newspaper, Armenian Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetyan may again petition parliament to strip a deputy's immunity, but this time from the ruling faction.

"Members of the faction have already actively discussed this information, trying to understand who the prosecutor will come for and who will be 'sacrificed'. There are two candidates: former Health Minister Arsen Torosyan and former Deputy Defence Minister Gagik Melkonyan," the source said.

It is noted that Torosyan's candidacy was discussed because criminal cases of abuse were initiated while he was health minister during the pandemic. Furthermore, it was Torosyan who exposed the falsifications during the Civil Contract party's board elections.

However, the former Deputy Defence Minister, MP Gagik Melkonyan, may have been punished for his non-participation in the vote on the petition to deprive the ex-defence chief, the head of the Armenia faction of the war criminal Seyran Ohanyan under the pretext of illness.