Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan introduced newly appointed National Security Service Director Armen Abazyan to the leadership of the National Security Service.

The Prime Minister noted that our state is going through challenging times and the National Security Service is supposed to play its role as the backbone of the Armenian statehood. “I am convinced that it will be the case. Of course, now we have to analyze what and why happened. I must say that my conclusion remains the same. The biggest and the most complicated problem is that unfortunately we were unable to reach the proposed level of institution building in our country. In fact, we did away with systemic corruption during the years following 2018; we removed the oligarchy from the system of public administration, but we were unable to build equally effective systems functioning in other logic. There were objective, subjective reasons for this because, for instance, in the case of the National Security Service, a primary task for me was to make sure that the system’s backbone, sorry for the word, would not break, and on the other hand, to ensure that the system could live up to the emerging challenges. This is a difficult task that we have not yet met: but we must do it. When talking about the National Security Service, regardless of their views, their job and qualifications, people should be aware - not in a negative context – that public order, legality is at stake. The National Security Service has the primary task of providing for the security of our state, the safety of our citizens, etc. Are we satisfied with the current level? I do not think we have such a situation now. Our task is to raise the benchmark to such a new level as will affect our public consciousness,” the Premier said.

Thanking outgoing National Security Service Director Argishti Kyaramyan for the work done during his term, Nikol Pashinyan noted that he took up office in a difficult period. The Premier expressed confidence that Mr. Kyaramyan’s potential would come of service during the following stages of state-building in Armenia. The Prime Minister also thanked Armen Abazyan for hard work because he had assumed the post in an even more difficult situation.

“I wish Mr. Abazyan and his colleagues every success in their activities. We need to look into what happened, talk and discuss what and why happened. We must draw the right conclusions. I am convinced that the larger part of information about the current situation is concentrated in the National Security Service. We need to process that information, analyze it and draw the right conclusions, because one can simply have a huge amount of information, but not be able to comprehend and process it, draw conclusions. So, we have a lot of hard work to do, including in terms of enforcing public and state security. We must accept the challenge, face it in order to strengthen our statehood, build up fully functional state institutions and come to a situation where the pledge of protecting the state interests will be secured by specific institutional guarantees. We must meet the benchmarks we have set,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.

Argishti Kyaramyan thanked the Prime Minister and the NSS staff for cooperation. “I was highly honored to serve in the NSS system, even for a short period of time. I wish Mr. Abazyan every success in his efforts as he assumes this important position in a challenging period. I am confident that Mr. Abazyan will succeed. May God protect us all,” Mr. Kyaramyan said.

In turn, Armen Abazyan thanked Prime Minister Pashinyan for confidence, noting that he will do his best together with his colleagues to make the Constitution work in the Republic of Armenia on a regular basis. “Regardless of his / her affiliation, any public official shall be held accountable in case of illegal action. I want to thank my colleagues for their patriotic and highly responsible services rendered since September 27,” the newly appointed National Security Service Director said.