Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the ceremonial session dedicated to the Investigative Committee Officer’s Day.

The Prime Minister congratulated the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Argishti Kyaramyan and all the officers on the occasion of the professional day. According to Nikol Pashinyan, for 5 years now, on this day he has been visiting the Investigative Committee and every time he tries to find an answer to the question: what has changed during this time, what are the changes directed at and what is the vector of the changes that are taking place?

"In general, this is a very important topic, because sometimes also due to global events, we do not have the time, mood, or desire to stop and take stock of what has changed, and what’s the quality of these changes, what is the assessment of these changes?

I want to make a few notes, which, to be honest, are actually on an emotional level, I hope that during the possible discussions and debates after my statements, it will be possible to find out empirically how much these emotional claims are also objective. And I feel and see that, for example, in the Republic of Armenia, in particular, in the field of responsibility of the Investigative Committee, in fact, the lion's share of the preliminary investigation, 90 percent or more, from January 1, 2023, will be under the responsibility of the Investigative Committee. I think that in Armenia, sorry for the expression of that word, the institution of "trumped up cases" has either disappeared, or is on the verge of being abolished, or we are going that way, or we have made a lot of progress on that way, so that the mentioned "institute" is eradicated from Armenia. This is a logical and self-evident phenomenon in any self-respecting state.

But it should also be noted that we are very strong-minded in proceeding along this path, and today in the preliminary investigation process in Armenia, the fact is a key, a pillar, and the work takes place with the fact, around the fact. This is a very simple, maybe even unnecessary statement for the profession, but I think we should make this statement.

The next statement I want to make and my feeling and observation shows it, is as follows. in our country, the preliminary investigation is becoming more and more fundamental, which derives from the previous points. This is also extremely important and I must also emphasize that an objective investigation does not mean, again, sorry for that word, a square-formed investigation, because sometimes there are compromises during and as a result of the investigation. But I want to emphasize that these are compromises that are provided by law. It is very important that they are legal, and perhaps the only purpose of these compromises is to protect the interests of the state and the public.

In this regard, I also want to emphasize that as a result of the activity of the Investigative Committee and the change in the quality of the preliminary investigation, the active process of restoring the damages caused to the state and the public is very important. Of course, we are trying to solve this issue through more thorough institutional investments and reforms, but I would also like to emphasize this circumstance," said Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister added that investigations of cases related to the 44-day war are opening new layers. "If there is a usual investigation, the results and goals of which are usually the preservation of the rule of law, the equality of all people before the law, the investigation related to the 44-day war, I suppose, should add another layer to this process, which in fact, under normal conditions, had nothing to do with the Investigative Committee and the preliminary investigation, or at least we did not often pay any attention to that point of view.

Those cases are important in terms of knowing ourselves, recognizing our problems, even delving into the layers of our socio-psychological sphere, facing and dealing with the foundations and theory of our state. And it is here that the investigation that I said should be much more fundamental, because the investigation of these cases will have a key and cornerstone significance on the further development of our state, because our country is obviously at an important crossroads․

In general, there is also a layer in the preliminary investigation of these cases, which we only deal with, so to speak, during noisy cases. It is very important, because the preliminary investigation, simply the investigation of criminal cases, gives a lot of information about ourselves, about our public relations, about state-society relations, about interests, nuances and quality, and this is also a very important function and I am happy to emphasize that we have reached those layers. This of course depends on what I said in the first part. When there is a fundamental investigation, when there is a determination to pursue the facts to the end, on the way to pursuing these facts, we make additional, perhaps unexpected discoveries about ourselves, about our history, about the functioning of our state institutions, about the theories of the foundations of our state. And I want to highlight it today.

In general, yes, I must say, and I am even more convinced of this, that we see a continuous change in the quality of the work of the Investigative Committee. This is an important process that needs to be continious. I have never said and I will not say, because it would not be correct to assume that the work of the Investigative Committee or any state body has reached some point from zero. No, it is inherently wrong to say such a thing, but it is very important that we, all the circles of our state, have the ambition of better quality work every day. Of course, this depends on many factors, especially in your case: law, legal certainty, as lawyers like to say, is very important.

The legislative changes in the field, as the Chairman of the Investigative Committee mentioned, are huge. A new Criminal Procedure Code has been adopted, which also brings with it new challenges, because any new law must be adapted, the systems must also be able to make the application as smooth as possible. In this regard, it is also important for us that, in general, the employees of the state system, the employees of the Investigative Committee have a strong system of social guarantees. This is our belief.

You know, I keep saying that in countries with such a social situation, when, for example, in the judicial system, in the investigative system, the issue of changes in salaries, social guarantees is raised, usually the reaction of the general public is the following: instead of solving the socially problems of the vulnerable class, the problems of the, so to speak, conventionally speaking, elite are solved. But my conviction that we make such changes not for the beneficiaries of the salary, but for the citizens, for the people, deepens more and more, because in the end, quality or poor quality investigation brings with it a better or worse quality of protection of citizens' rights.

We must constantly instill this understanding among our public that the public servant should have a proper salary, because the public servant provides a service to the citizen. By and large, a preliminary investigation is a service delivery. The first beneficiaries of this service are the state and citizens. It may sound strange, but the accused should also be provided with quality service, because the accused is not deprived of his rights. Therefore, we must be firm in this process, and the higher the quality of these services, our experience has shown, the greater the state revenues will be, because in recent years we have increased state budget revenues by billions. As a result of what? Also as a result of these factors I mentioned.

The more we strengthen the system of social guarantees of public service, the fairer social environment we will have, the more we will be able to provide quality service to the most vulnerable classes, because our work is ultimately enclosed in the terms of state-citizen-legal system-law-justice. In general, it is accepted to say, according to classical logic, it is said that the state is an instrument of violence, but in our understanding, the state is an instrument of justice. In general, it is accepted to say, according to classical logic, it is said that the state is an instrument of violence, but in our understanding, the state is an instrument of justice. The more accomplished the legal system in the state is, the more perfect is the institution of equality before the law, the higher the quality of the preliminary investigation, the more developed the judicial system, the more fair state we have. This is our goal: to build an environment where people can live, create, be happy and free.

You know, it may also seem that these goals and emphasis of mine are not so relevant given the current period, in the conditions of the security challenges that are happening around us, known to all of us, but I think on the contrary, that especially in such situations, we should address such topics so that to be able to formulate the guidelines and objectives correctly. Because the decisions we will make today, or rather, the assessment of those decisions depend on these strategic goals, their formulation and recording: did we make the right decision or the wrong one?

Generally speaking, if we exaggerate a bit, there is no right or wrong decision. Or rather, right and wrong decisions are evaluated according to the strategic goal you set before yourself. In other words, the decision is a decision to go in some direction. So how to decide whether a given decision is right or wrong? It depends on where you want to go, because if you want to go in one direction, depending on the choice of perspective or strategic goal, one and the same decision can be both right or wrong. This is an important statement.

We have to record and I have been talking about it more and more often recently, and I am talking more and more often because I have formed a belief about it that all our actions should be based on the Republic of Armenia, the state and the state interest, because the state interest is the formula formed from the collection of all possible interests: the interests of the citizen, the people, the identity, the past, and the future. I would like us to focus on this direction, on the task of turning the Republic of Armenia into a more and more concrete political, state, and international institution, and ensure the permanence of our state on this basis. In this sense, the effective work of all our state institutions, the socio-psychological regulation with which we work, is important.

It is a very important statement that we should not get tired of learning every day. We should not get tired of learning from our achievements and failures every day and we should be filled with the determination that the responsibility of the millennial destiny of the Republic of Armenia is placed on our shoulders today. We must give strength to each other so that our knees do not bend in this responsible way. I am sure that we will move forward with clear steps. For that, one thing needs to be decided: to clearly formulate the task of what we want. And we want the Republic of Armenia to be a powerful, free, peaceful and happy state.

Dear officers of the Investigative Committee, let me once again congratulate you on the occasion of the professional day and thank you for the work done," Prime Minister Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister awarded the Mkhitar Ghosh Medal to Azat Gevorgyan, head of the main department of supervision of the activities of territorial investigative departments of the Investigative Committee, Armen Hovhannisyan, Senior Investigator of the General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Central Office and General Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee, for their contribution to the strengthening of law and order.

Nikol Pashinyan also awarded a group of Investigative Committee employees with a commemorative medal of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.