Inquiry filed over airport surveillance footage

PanARMENIAN.Net - Gegham Manukyan, a member of the National Assembly’s Armenia faction, has submitted a parliamentary inquiry to National Security Service Director Andranik Simonyan, seeking clarification on how video footage recorded in a specially controlled area of Zvartnots International Airport appeared on the Telegram channel of Haykakan Zhamanak, a publication owned by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s family. Manukyan announced this on his Facebook page.

“My questions are perhaps rhetorical, because the Armenian law enforcement system has long since become an institution engaged in unlawful activities serving Nikol’s government and whims.

Incidentally, this is not the first time I have sent an inquiry of this nature to the National Security Service. I have repeatedly raised in the National Assembly cases where recordings from specially protected areas, including the National Assembly and Zvartnots Airport, have ended up in the hands of the government’s propaganda machine for political purposes.

P.S. I have also received numerous reports that during the few days preceding the elections, based on records maintained by military police at Armenia’s border checkpoints, several thousand of our compatriots were prevented from leaving the country. This constitutes a gross violation of the law and carries serious criminal implications. Nikol is trying to make everyone complicit in his crimes,” Gegham Manukyan stated.

Haykakan Zhamanak had published photographs and video footage showing Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, at Zvartnots Airport presenting his passport to a border guard. Kocharyan was reportedly prevented from leaving the country, despite the fact that his planned trip had been announced in advance.