No barbed wires between police and people: PM Pashinyan introduces new Police Chief to staff

YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan introduced new Police Chief Valery Osipyan to the Police staff and board, the government told Armenpress.

The PM thanked former Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan for the works done during his tenure which derived from the interests of Armenia’s public security, legality and protection of human rights.

“I want to formulate the task I put before the Police: the first one is of course the complete and unconditional maintenance of law and order, the second one is the protection of human rights and democracy. Here I want to specify several sub-issues: firstly, the criminal activity in Armenia must reach an unprecedented low level, the next – we all need to refuse from the action of fining citizens constantly and at all possible occasions since, in my opinion, by such actions we undermine the atmosphere in the country. Mr. Osipyan, it is necessary to quickly understand what decisions we need to adopt to guarantee this issue also de jure”, PM Pashinyan said, adding that punishment policy must be replaced by an effective prevention policy. The PM noted that Police and the Yerevan Municipality must take serious measures to keep away the citizens from traffics, inconveniences.

“The next direction I want to mention is the fight against corruption. Any corruption type must be firstly ruled out in the Police system, and here we can replace the policy of not noticing by the punishment policy. Corruption must be totally eradicated in Armenia. What had happened in Armenia from political terms over the past month, many were assessing it as something impossible. Therefore, if we started to make the impossible a reality, we need to continue fighting corruption with the same pace, and I expect not to hear any news that traffic police officer is taking a bribe. The official, be from the Police or other sphere, who takes bribes, makes corruption decisions, must wait for the rapid response of law enforcement agencies. I have also put a similar task before the director of the National Security Service”, PM Pashinyan said, adding that the most important function of public authorities is the following: to make the citizens’ life more comfortable, to ensure atmosphere of love and solidarity in Armenia.

“In fact, the situation is such that the citizens, especially those opposing, and the police have sometimes appeared in different sides of the line also due to political events. I expect from us to delete these lines, especially when during the recent political events these lines have started to be deleted, and I want to specifically thank the police for demonstrating maximal restraint during the events of the past month, in particular, during the last 10-15 days”, the PM noted.

Former Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan thanked colleagues for the joint work and attached importance to the continuation of reforms in the police system. Vladimir Gasparyan highly appreciated Valery Osipyan’s professional qualities and wished him productive work.

In his turn Valery Osipyan thanked PM Pashinyan for the great trust and expressed confidence that the tasks set before the Police will be implemented at a high level.

Summing up his remarks, the PM said: “The so-called clan approach must be ruled out in the cadre policy, and the principle of the service progress in the Police system must be the professionalism, dedication, service to the Republic of Armenia and its people. I think we all understand well that many citizens in Armenia will continue perceiving the Police as a subject standing on the other side of barbed wires. Our and your major task is to quickly show to the Armenian citizens that there are no barbed wires, shields, special measures between the police and the people, and that the police are serving to the Republic of Armenia and its people. This is the political task which we should solve very quickly”, the PM said.

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan