Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan introduced newly appointed minister Grigor Minasyan to the staff of the Ministry of Justice.

The Prime Minister thanked Karen Andreasyan for his work as the Minister of Justice and wished success in his future activities as the President of the Supreme Judicial Council. Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Grigor Minasyan on his appointment as Minister of Justice.

"The change is symbolic in the sense that we have recently entered the final stage in the implementation of strategic programs in the judicial system. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will also be formed in the near future, before that the Anti-Corruption Committee had already been formed and serious legislative changes have taken place in the judicial system and the legal system. It seems that all the preconditions have been created so that we can move from the development, planning phase of our vision of having an independent judicial system to the implementation phase. And in this sense, of course, the Ministry of Justice is the authorized body of the government that will implement all these processes.

Just last week, we listened to the annual report 2022 of the Ministry of Justice and saw that we have a clear idea of what to do next. I hope that the constructive cooperation of the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Judicial Council will also be achieved, which I think is a very important factor in this whole process.

Here I want to draw our attention to two factors. First, Mr. Andreasyan, in his position as a minister, participated in the planning of these strategies and has a very specific contribution, on the other hand, these strategies are discussed with the Supreme Judicial Council and the judicial system. It is not that insolated discussions take place in the Government. I mean, we seem to have something like a consensus on what we should do, what kind of changes we should implement. And so, I think now there are all the prerequisites to make all of that happen. I want to wish success to us and to you, Mr. Minasyan, and to you, Mr. Andreasyan, in bringing this work to life.

I would like to emphasize that we have very urgent existential agendas, but what is the way to serve these agendas, to face these challenges? That way is not to deviate for a second from the task of accomplishing state institutions.

This is very important because, in general, a state must have institutional depth to be able to face all possible challenges. I consider the deepest reason for our challenges, including security ones, and this is my belief, also analyzing these past events show that, is the low level of our institutional accomplishment in all circles," said the Prime Minister.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, this work should be carried out consistently, no matter how difficult and difficult it is. "There is also this criticism about what you are doing: are you raising the salaries of judges, etc.?" Yes, we are raising the salaries of the judges, because we are raising the salaries of the judges, the military, the policemen, the teachers, and pensioners, because institutionalization is very important.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, this work should be carried out consistently, no matter how difficult and hard it is. "There is also the criticism about raising the salaries of judges. Yes, we are raising the salaries of the judges, because we are raising the salaries of the judges, the military, the policemen, the teachers, and the pensions, because institutionalization is very important.

In other words, there must be an organism, the organism must be healthy, have a healthy muscular system, healthy blood vessels and brain system, so that it can understand what is happening around it and resist. In this regard, the accomplishment of the judiciary is important. We will ensure 13-14 percent economic growth and our challenge is to ensure that economic dynamics.

And the effective functioning of the judicial system is also important in terms of attractiveness of investments, so that people are sure that their rights will be properly protected, investment risks will be managed. In the near future, we have to create arbitration, which is an extremely important event and innovation. In arbitration cases, opportunities should be created for the parties to reach an agreement, their future relations should be regulated not by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, but, for example, by other internationally accepted rights and so on. There is a lot of work to be done in the near future, and the role of the Ministry of Justice is very important and crucial in this process.

I wish you luck again and congratulations."

Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, former Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan thanked the Prime Minister for his support and trust in responsible work during his tenure. "Also, I want to emphasize, because there is a lot of speculation that if the member of the Supreme Judicial Council or the President came from the Government, whether there could be problems related to legality or pressure. I also want to thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, especially for the fact that during my tenure as a minister, there was not a minor deviation from legality, any unfair assignment, or any problem, let alone in the case when we work in independent bodies. I thank you especially for that, also for your support provided during my term of office", said Karen Andreasyan and also thanked the staff of the Ministry for the work done and expressed hope that the team will continue to fulfill all tasks and programs under the leadership of Grigor Minasyan.

For his part, Grigor Minasyan thanked the Prime Minister for his trust and assured that the MoJ team will be able to implement and complete all the measures outlined in the Government's Actin Plan, as well as the actions based on the sectoral reforms of the Ministry of Justice. "Also, you talked about the consensus, whether the executive power discusses with the judges the reforms that are being implemented. I must mention that, yes, there were such discussions also before, but thanks to the initiative of Mr. Andreasyan, an opportunity was created to bring out the daily problems that the judges have, both at the legislative and domestic levels as a result of the joint discussions of the legislative, executive and judicial authorities. Within a month, we already have great indicators and improvements in that area.

I would like to thank Mr. Andreasyan, because as a newly appointed minister, I have the opportunities to use the results of the enormous work that he has done. The December 23 report was the fruits that we reaped from Mr. Andreasyan's great work," said the newly appointed minister.

Summarizing, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted. "I want to make two observations related to what was said. First, regarding the judicial system. look, we're sincere when we say we want an independent judiciary. You see, we really don't do formalities, because if we needed to do that, we wouldn't say anything, we wouldn't talk about it, we wouldn't worry, we wouldn't be shocked, we wouldn't shout, , we wouldn't do anything, we would just let everything go like it used to be: solving issues through calls. We really want an independent judicial system in the country. Our problem is somewhere else, that the judicial system, when we say it should be independent, should be independent by nature, from the origin.

Secondly, the judicial system, the judicial branch is an independent power, but there is a regulation in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia: all power to the people. There cannot be a government in the Republic of Armenia that does not emerge from the people. It does not mean that it is not independent, but it shows under whose mandate that government works, any government. The source of power in the Republic of Armenia is the people. There can be no other source to feed the power. This is our logic, and we want a truly independent judicial system that should work at synchrony with the state's strategic goals, the strategic goals of the state, which were formed by people’s will.

There is nothing illegal in what has been said, there is nothing infringing rights in what has been said and I can confirm that what we have written in our strategies are our sincere wishes. We consistently pursue them every day. Of course, there are problems, failures, somewhere it doesn't work, somewhere it works exactly the opposite, but that doesn't change the essence of the issue.

The next one is related to the ministry. I also want to confirm that yes, I have seen quality work in the report and I want to thank you for that work. I don't know if Mr. Andreasyan will promise or not, but I won't promise that we won't make other appointments to other positions from your wonderful team. In particular, there were discussions, I hope that Ms. Arpine Sargsyan will take the position of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, who was involved in the reforms of the Police, in the formation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I attach great importance to the wing that develops and implements strategies in the newly formed ministry, which I hope Ms. Sargsyan will lead.

I thank you and wish you success."