ELITE MUST BE PRIMARY TARGET OF CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION

ARKA
July 21

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan thinks the elite must be
primary target of the crackdown on corruption.

"This is the only honest way. Substantial institutional changes are
needed in all sectors. These changes will take much time, honesty
and devotion", the premier said in Tsakhkadzor at his meeting with
To Haik fund volunteers.

The volunteers are now in Our Lady of Armenia camp, where 198 children
from low-income families of Armenian provinces of Lori and Shirak as
well as Javakhk (Georgia) are spending their holidays now.

Sargsyan said that the results of the reformation will be visible
very soon.

Asked why the crackdown on corruption hadn’t been launched earlier,
the premier pointed out some obstacles.

He singled out Soviet Union’s collapse as one of these
circumstances. He said that the collapse destroyed many economic
institutions, and the society couldn’t organize its life.

"We had many problems, irregular supply of bread, butter and
energy. War with Karabakh added a great deal to the then turmoil",
he said adding that the nation had to win that war to survive.

The prime minister said that all the obstacles have been overcome
and now people’s mentality must be altered to rid the country of
corruption that blighted the society in recent years.

Sargsyan s aid that corruption in Armenia flourished because of
behavior of those people who had access to certain levers and abused
them.