"Hraparak" newspaper wrote:
Yesterday, after a month-long search, the elite of the "Civil Agreement" party finally chose their "favorite" candidate for the Minister of Justice.
RA Deputy Prosecutor General Srbuhi Galyan will be appointed Minister of Justice of Armenia.
At the last session of the CP Board, 5 candidacies were discussed: Srbuhi Galyan, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan, Director of "Children of Armenia" Foundation Liana Ghaltaghchyan, representative of Armenia in international legal affairs Yeghishe Kirakosyan, and former member of the Supreme Judicial Council and former acting president of the Supreme Judicial Council, former Prosecutor General of Armenia. deputy, former military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan.
Against the background of nominated candidates, the election of Srbuhi Galyan was a surprise not only for ordinary citizens, even the ruling team was surprised how Srbuhi appeared among the candidates at the last moment, even more so, she was elected, if Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke to his teammates about Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan after the previous session of the CP. about his sympathy for him, after which some members of the Communist Party presented the candidacy of Arpine Sargsyan to the board.
And during one of the previous sessions about Srbuhi Galyan, when the next election failed and Galyan's name was mentioned, Pashinyan said that they should leave him alone, he has a lot of work to do. It is about "returning the loot" of the former: Srbuhi Galyan coordinated cases of confiscation of illegally acquired property as a deputy prosecutor.
We were told that 32-year-old Galyan's candidacy was presented to the board by Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan on the day of the board's session. Galyan is a fellow student of Avinyan's friends Rustam Badasyan and Argishti Kyaramyan, he was the deputy minister of justice when Badasyan was a minister. I mean, it's from this "krug".
He was appointed the Deputy Prosecutor General on September 1, 2020, before that he was the Deputy Minister of Justice for about a year. The election of Galyan left some circles of the Communist Party with the impression that the power is escaping from under Nikol Pashinyan's feet.
It turns out that he does not even have a majority in the CP department, if Avinyan is able to pass his candidate. And if it is so, then Avinyan strengthens his positions. In the key positions of the government and forces, his close associates are: Investigative Committee, SRC, soon the Ministry of Justice, also Anti-Corruption Committee, because Galyan is close to the chairman of the committee, Sasun Khachatryan.
But this impression can also be fake or specially staged by Nikol Pashinyan. We learned that more than half of the CP administration, 8 out of 15 people, voted for Galyan, mostly Avinyan's close friends, with the exception of Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan, who is one of Pashinyan's loyalists and It is unlikely that they would have dared to take such a step without his knowledge.
In addition to Tigran Avinyan, Alen Simonyan, Gnel Sanosyan, Armen Pambukhchyan, Ruben Rubinyan, PWS head Romanos Petrosyan and Arsen Torosyan voted for Galyan.
And Arpine Sargsyan received only three votes, from Arpi Davoyan, Vahagn Aleksanyan and Vagharshak Hakobyan. By the way, according to the impression of our source in the department, Gagik Jhangiryan presented the best vision of the minister's activities among the candidates, but only Sasun Mikayelyan and Vagharshak Hakobyan voted for him.
Returning to Galyan's election. although the CP believes that he is Avinyan's candidate, it is not excluded that Nikol Pashinyan had this candidacy in mind from the beginning, but he made this month-long presentation to show that the CP is not a party of one person. near democracy reigns.
You saw how his candidate did not pass, but the CP Department made a decision. Although he could not have such a discussion in general and appoint the minister by his decree, as he has done until now. And in this way, they kept the intrigue, provided a remarkable show for the public, and appeared to be a democrat.
We asked Romanos Petrosyan, the head of the State Police, a member of the Police Department, whether this long search for the Minister of Justice and the selection of a non-KP in the end does not mean that there is a personnel deficit in the Police Department. "Initially, yes, we had a decision to choose a party member, but as a result of extensive discussions within the party circles, we did not find the party friend, the candidate who could face today's challenges or advance the newly planned reforms based on important professional experience, education, and educational trajectory."
In other words, aren't your critics wrong when they say that there are no educated, knowledgeable specialists in the government? Was it true that they are all Pashinyan's backpacks?
"It's an incorrect comment, I didn't want to comment on it, but you have to accept that the selected candidate is a full member of the team, he's not just a party member, he's been holding a position since 2019, and in my, maybe subjective opinion, he's fulfilled all the positions assigned to him with honor responsibility.
And if such people share our political course, are ready for political responsibility, are willing to be a part of the Prime Minister's cabinet, they should at least be teammates and ideologues," said the head of the PSU. We noticed that Grigor Minasyan also took responsibility, why was he fired?
"Let me not comment on that process, because I was not a part of that process in any way."
"I declare with the utmost responsibility that we chose the candidate without behind-the-scenes agreements, without referrals, the chairman of the department himself abstained from all the votes so as not to make referrals."