CORRUPTION COMBATTING MUST START FROM ELITE: ARMENIAN PREMIER

ARKA
July 23

Elite must be the first target of anti-corruption measures in Armenia,
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said.

"To start an efficient struggle against corruption first of all
people must realize that corruption is an evil. That is the only way
to eradicate corruption," the premier told the campers of the Youth
Achievements Armenia Summer Camp in Tsakhkadzor.

The premier said corruption starts in Armenia from the very birth, at
the maternity hospital referring to the well-known Armenian tradition
of bribing the hospital personnel.

Later people are encountered with corruption in kindergartens and
schools.

It is only at the universities that people realize the scale
of corruption when they have to bribe each lecturer to get their
desired marks.

"People must be taught to treat corruption as an evil. Unless people
realize this the government will be making useless efforts. People
must understand that corruption jeopardizes their future and the
future of the country," Sargsyan stressed. N.H.