Pashinyan announces victory over corruption in Armenian govt

There are no more corrupt officials among high-ranking government officials, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a rally in Yerevan, while summing up the outcomes of the first hundred days of the new government's rule.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 17, thousands of Nikol Pashinyan's supporters from different regions of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh gathered for a rally in Yerevan.

To date, there is no corruption in Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan told the rally. "This does not mean that there is not a single official in Armenia who does not take bribes. It only means that among the high-ranking officials in the Armenian govt, there are no corrupt people," he has explained.

The corrupt officials, who have lost power, are trying to rely on Russia, but they will surely fail, Nikol Pashinyan said. "Today, when they are on their way to prison, they are calling to Russia and claiming that all this is being done against them; that fighting corruption is in fact a fight against them. In vain, these calls won't save them, because there are no naive people in Moscow, same as in Yerevan," Mr Pashinyan said.

He announced a reduction in the number of ministries, the spending on which is too high and inefficient. "We believe that there shouldn't be 17 ministries in Armenia. The number should be significantly reduced, as well as of other state structures," the "News-Armenia" quotes the Premier as saying on August 17, adding that he appealed to "all Armenians," urging them to invest into the economy of their homeland.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 18, 2018 at 09:39 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.