Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the ceremonial session dedicated to the establishment day of the State Protection Service.

First of all, the Prime Minister congratulated the Head of the State Protection Service Sargis Hovhannisyan, all the employees of the Service, including those involved from the first day of the establishment of the service, on the occasion of the holiday and thanked them for fulfilling the duties set before them by the law and the Constitution. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that 2023 is a turning point for the State Protection Service, because it has transformed into a body subordinate to the Prime Minister.

"This means that we have created a new special service, which has a serious responsibility from the point of view of ensuring security in the country, fighting terrorism, and protecting the rule of law.

And in this regard, of course, I must emphasize that during the implementation of the change, we want to strengthen, emphasize the best traditions of the service and try to remove the shortcomings. Of course, our goal is for the service to become stronger and stronger for the benefit of the Republic of Armenia and its security. The service is first of all a law-enforcment structure, but in order to increase the efficiency of any law-enforcment structure, it is essential that this activity is based on intellectual abilities, as well as development. Of course, in the near future, we plan to improve the structure's physical infrastructure, weapons, technical means, first of all, to strengthen operational and analytical capabilities.

Of course, the State Protection Service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year. More and more of that work should be invisible to the public and less and less part of that work visible to the service. In general, this is how I evaluate the work of the service: the less it is noticeable both to the protected persons and to the public, the better the service is organized. The service should be guided by the following principle: not to act where it is not necessary, and act where it is necessary. This is of course a fine line and requires an intellectual approach first. We hope that the reforms of the service in this period will lead to an increase in both quality and social guarantees of employees," said the Prime Minister.

The Head of the Government noted that the process of voluntary certification will be launched in the near future, the main goal of which is to at least double the salaries. "But of course, doubling the salary implies at least significantly better quality of work, which of course does not mean that we think that the work performed is not of high quality, but even the highest quality work can be of higher quality. This is our logic.

I want to emphasize that the quality of the service's work is also important in terms of Armenia's international image, because the State Protection Service receives and accompanies foreign guests. This is a moment that we may not often notice, but it is extremely important. In other words, in fact, the foreign guests interact with the country through the employees of the State Protection Service. During our foreign visits, we often get a certain idea about the state of things in that country from contacts with the representatives of relevant foreign services.

At the same time, the representatives of the State Protection Service accompany high-ranking officials during foreign visits, which is also a very important feature that is also left out of our focus. And we must develop the service in all these directions, of course, by strengthening the state, because the most important factor for strengthening the state in general is the efficiency, consistency and quality of the country's institutions and services.

I'm sure we'll go this way consistently. It is also important to note that the State Protection Service today has both the organizational and intellectual capacity to implement all these changes.

In addition, certain standards and traditions must develop and evolve. In general, if you have noticed, we often talk about the higher degree of involvement of women in all kinds of fields. Of course, we can see in this hall that quite a number of women serve in the State Protection Service, but we also have the task of having a higher rate of involvement of women in military service, combat service, and bodyguard service. Today, we carry out this policy in all directions: in the Police, Armed Forces, and State Protection Service. I want to emphasize that some interpret this only with other worldview perspectives, but our perception is not like that. Today, for objective and subjective reasons, that is, I say this in neither a positive nor a negative context, the majority of the population of the Republic of Armenia are women, this means, imagine if we do not sufficiently involve the majority of the population in the economic, state, and political affairs of the country. This means that we are not using the full potential of our country for the development of the state, which is simply illogical and ineffective.

Basically, since April, we have a new service with a new status, the management logic of which has undergone certain changes. Of course, after some time we will analyze what results this new management method brings, what problems it causes, whether it causes or not. This is a live process. We will continue with the same logic.

Coming back to the symbolism of the day, I want to once again thank everyone, both present and absent, who are not in the room at the moment. I also share the assessment of the head of the service that the State Protection Service has fulfilled the tasks set before it, and this is the most important record for this holiday, for which I thank everyone again and wish success in the future service."

A group of employees of the State Protection Service were awarded with the Prime Minister's commemorative medal by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for their dedication, conscientious and efficient work while performing their service duties and were encouraged with a letter of appreciation from the Prime Minister and valuable gifts.