Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan has called on both former and acting officials to cooperate with the government in detecting acts of corruption. He commented on the video, posted by the National Security Service of Armenia on June 17, which was shot in the house of Deputy in the Armenian National Assembly, participant in the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Manvel Grigoryan.
Grigoryan was arrested on June 16, 2018. Hundreds of boxes with military clothes and medicines, gathered for military personnel, as well as hundreds of boxes with food and hygiene products were found in the warehouses. In addition, 18 PG-7 anti-tank grenades, 20 F-1 grenades, 33300rounds of ammunition of various calibers, 12 TNT-blocks, 79 rifles, 39 pistols, other weapons, as well as several dozen property certificates were found there, Interfax reported. On Grigorian's territory, there are also three motor-vehicle pools with a collection of cars. In addition, a zoo with a tiger, bears, ostriches and horses was found.
The deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, deputy of the National Assembly Armen Ashotyan perceives the find in Manvel Grigoryan's house as "personal pain and tragedy". "If it is proven that all these charges are justified, then this will be a personal tragedy for me," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Grigoryan's lawyer Grant Ananyan refused to defend him, according to his statement on Facebook. Ananian specified that new details have emerged in Grigoryan's case, which he had not known earlier. Ananyan pointed out that even the preliminary investigation body did not know about the revealed details. In the current conditions, he considers it not reasonable to continue providing legal assistance to Manvel Grigoryan, Sputnik-Armenia reports.
In addition, the mayor of Etchmiadzin, son of Manvel Grigoryan, Karen Grigoryan has resigned.
Ex-mayor of Yerevan Vahagn Khachatryan, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the arrest of Manvel Grigoryan opened the shocking reality of life in Armenia. "Recently, cases when people are intentionally misinformed have become more frequent, but I think that everything reported about Grigoryan will be confirmed. And now we should think about how come Grigoryan reached such a scale of criminal activity. I am sure that those people who supported him simply did not know what he was doing behind their backs," he said.
"Now they should decide whether to support Manvel Grigoryan. But the most important thing now is for the investigation to be conducted openly. It proves again that the country where we lived as citizens of Armenia was not like that in reality - it was a country of bandits," Vahagn Khachatryan stressed.
The ex-mayor of Yerevan drew attention to the fact that the whole of Armenia was shocked by the revealed facts about Manvel Grigoryan's life. "In addition, we have received confirmation that the government led by Nikol Pashinyan is really fighting corruption, shadow economy and other negative things. And we are ready to support this course of the new government and we want all such facts to be revealed to avoid a repetition of it in the future," he concluded.
