Intelligence chief calls Pashinyan remarks logical

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan “said something very logical,” Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service chief Kristinne Grigoryan stated while responding to a question from opposition MP Armenuhi Kyureghyan.

The lawmaker from the Hayastan faction referred to Pashinyan’s earlier statement that Armenia could face a “catastrophic war” in September if the ruling Civil Contract party fails to secure a constitutional majority in upcoming elections, Panorama.am reported.

Kyureghyan asked whether the statement had been based on intelligence data available to the Foreign Intelligence Service or whether the agency had attempted to verify such claims through operational or intelligence-gathering measures. She also asked which country was supposedly expected to launch such a war against Armenia.

Grigoryan sought to explain the prime minister’s remarks.

“If political forces competing during the election period question the cornerstones of the peace architecture, that implies peace will subsequently collapse. The prime minister’s statement follows this logic,” she said.

Kyureghyan responded by saying the exchange confirmed that the service possessed no such intelligence and that the prime minister’s remarks were merely political statements.

“We know that such statements are made whenever it is politically convenient for them and that they have no logical basis,” the opposition MP said.

National Assembly Vice Speaker and Civil Contract MP Ruben Rubinyan then asked whether the likelihood of war would increase, decrease or remain unchanged if the Hayastan alliance or another force with similar foreign policy positions came to power.

Grigoryan replied that the risk would increase.

“Those statements indicate dismantling the architecture of peace and returning to conflict, with all the resulting consequences, including the threat of attack,” she said.

Grigoryan was presenting amendments to the law “On Foreign Intelligence Activity and the Foreign Intelligence Service” during the parliamentary session.