Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   19 March 2024

Pashinyan reveals intelligence had briefed on top judge’s attempts to collude and “render services”

Pashinyan reveals intelligence had briefed on top judge’s attempts to collude and “render 
services”

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has disclosed what he had described to be the proof supporting his accusations that Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan had offered him “his services”.

In a Facebook post written on January 26th, the PM shared a photo of what appears to be a Korloff pen and said: “This is Hrayr Tovmasyan’s pen. I’ve been thinking for a long time whether I should keep it or throw it into the garbage. Eventually I decided to keep it as proof of the strangest toadyism I have ever seen.

After being elected Prime Minister I met Hrayr Tovmasyan for the first time during the 2018 May Board of Trustees session of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. He was seated next to me.

Mr. Tovmasyan’s overtly toady behavior towards me seemed unusual to me, a man whose actions had resulted in his long-time political team’s destruction just days earlier.

He was addressing me exclusively “dear Mr. Pashinyan”, “dear Mr. Prime Minister”. Those “dears” are jarring my ears up to now. By the way, he has never addressed me in any other style during the entire time we ever spoke. Exclusively with “dears”.

Then, he suddenly remembered and found it noteworthy that [his wife is from Ijevan] [Pashinyan’s hometown].

Then, I had to make a note and I couldn’t find my pen, I don’t remember if I asked for it or if he noticed that I was searching for my pen and offered me this “elite” pen of his.

I took my notes, I delivered my speech and my attempts to return his pen turned into a story. He was like “it is yours, please take it” etc. It was already turning into an inconvenient episode in front of cameras.

In short, this pen stayed with me as a “assurance of loyalty”. Now I am thinking that it was my sub-consciousness working when I took the pen – in order to have a “substantial fact” today.

Anyway, then, the requests for a reception began. I didn’t accept.

Then, July 5th was approaching. The “message-requests” began, asking me to participate in the reception at the Constitutional Court on that day. I refused, moreover I refused for several times, because I understood that the person having occupied the Constitutional Court was trying to gain legitimacy that way.

Then we met again at the 2019 Christmas mass. He began toadying Anna like “thank you for giving my daughter a scholarship”.  When I noticed he was crossing the line of toadying, I told him “I didn’t know who she was”. Although it then turned out I really didn’t know (let me say that knowing or not knowing didn’t matter for making a decision, it is a matter of specific criteria).

Then, for several times the person whom he had referred to recently came and reported to me that Hrayr is saying “I wrote this Constitution, why doesn’t the prime minister use my capabilities””, the PM wrote in the statement, presumably referring to the then-NSS chief Artur Vanetsyan as the person who reported.

“As a response to [Tovmasyan] I recommended him to [go to hell]”, Pashinyan said.

In a separate statement, the PM again touched upon the matter, and said he was “shocked” to have learnt about the price of the pen.

“I am shocked by learning how much this pen costs. It turns out the person who has usurped the position of Constitutional Court Chairman through fraud had made an expensive offering to the newly elected prime minister of the country, spicing up the process with delicate hints of being an “Ijevantsi’s bridegroom”.

This is an important nuance in a country having traditions of clan governance. What is this if not an offer of rendering one’s own services in exchange of keeping his position?

And the participants of the hybrid coup [attempt] are already publicly manifesting themselves. But like I said, the backbone of all conspiracies is crushed,” the PM said, referring to an earlier statement that an attempted coup has been thwarted.

“With courage, folks. Let’s boost the economic revolution. We will solve the remaining issues along the way,” the PM said.

Shortly after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan revealed at a January 25 press conference that Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan had offered him “his services” to collude in some unspecified matters, the top judge reacted and claimed that the premier’s statement is a lie.

Tovmasyan said in a statement shortly afterwards that the PM’s accusations are “fake slander”.

“From this moment on, I will patiently wait for 20 days for Pashinyan to disclose any objective fact, any reliable evidence supporting his statement. Otherwise I will request my lawyers to file a defamation lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan,” Tovmasyan had said.

But then, Pashinyan fired back at Tovmasyan and claimed he has proof.

“As soon as I reach Yerevan I will disclose Hrayr Tovmasyan’s anticipated objective, reliable fact,” Pashinyan said on Facebook from Kapan, an Armenian town where he was delivering a news conference on January 25. “But please don’t blame me in giving an unproportionally stronger counterblow. I didn’t want to: you forced me,” Pashinyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan








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