Accu­sa­tions of incom­pe­tence and cor­rup­tion have been exchanged between Armenia’s Prime Minister and the former head of the National Security Service, following the latter’s res­ig­na­tion in mid-September. 

Artur Vanetsyan, the Head of the Armenian National Security Service (NSS), who served in the post for roughly a year and three months and was a key figure in Nikol Pashinyan’s anti-cor­rup­tion drive, resigned on 16 September.

That same day, he also published a res­ig­na­tion statement on Facebook and on the official NSS website in which he crit­i­cised the post-rev­o­lu­tion­ary admin­is­tra­tion and expressed hope that his res­ig­na­tion would serve as a ‘stop’ sign for Pashinyan.

The letter began a bitter cycle of recrim­i­na­tion between Pashinyan and his old security chief, marking perhaps the single biggest intra-gov­ern­ment rift since Pashinyan became Prime Minister in spring 2018.

‘State building has its logic: the spon­tane­ity of decisions and tur­bu­lence of actions, and the work style of not dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing between primary and secondary, transient and lasting things, is not the path that leads to the achieve­ment of goals’, Vanetsyan’s statement read. ‘It has nothing in common with an officer’s dignity. The epaulets are incom­pat­i­ble with such a course of events.’

Later that day, the PM's spokesper­son responded. Vladimir Kara­petyan told Armen­press that Vanetysan should ‘not lose an officer’s dignity’. He also implied that Vanetsyan was not the author of the statement and that it could be connected to, and have provided pro­tec­tion for spokesper­sons of the old regime.

‘We need to find out who has written the text attrib­uted to Arthur Vanetsyan. We hope that its authors are not corrupt public relations agencies who have “mis­tak­en­ly” avoided pros­e­cu­tion’, Kara­petyan said. 

The next day, Vanetsyan shot back, telling reporters that he was the author of the text and that his adviser Armen Davtyan edited it. ‘We worked together on that text. I consider it to be naive to link me with the corrupt’, he said.

He also emphat­i­cal­ly denied rumours of any con­nec­tion with ex-president Serzh Sargsyan’s son-in-law, Michael Minasyan. ‘Do not dare tie me to him […] Michael Minasyan is someone who has to give answers to many questions before Armenian law.’

In a press con­fer­ence on 22 September during a visit to the United States, Pashinyan said that Vanetsyan had shamed himself by speaking out against him while still, de jure, holding the office of the head of the NSS. 

‘He made a statement against the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and being the head of a structure which is sub­or­di­nate to the prime minister, it was a statement against his superior’, Pashinyan said. ‘There is no greater contempt for an officer’s honour.’ 

Pashinyan added that it was equiv­a­lent to ‘throwing [one’s] epaulets into the trash’.

On 23 September, Vanetsyan gave an interview to Hraparak where he made the most trenchant crit­i­cisms of Pashinyan to date. 

‘Nikol Pashinyan spoke about things he has little under­stand­ing of’, he said. ‘Now I see he repeat­ed­ly breaks agree­ments and makes vague and populist state­ments about nothing.’ 

He added that Pashinyan ‘does not think about the con­se­quences of his words’.

Since Vanetsyan’s res­ig­na­tion, Armenian news­pa­pers have been fever­ish­ly dis­cussing the political future of the former NSS chief, with many spec­u­lat­ing that he would join the oppo­si­tion Pros­per­ous Armenia Party.

Vanetsyan denied the rumours, stating ‘I rule out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of joining the Pros­per­ous Armenia Party at any stage in my life and any political force in general.’

However, he quickly back­tracked. ‘I say I rule out joining the political force, and I will make a decision myself, which I will announce in the near future, if necessary, after a rest’, he said. 

He concluded by saying that he would ‘refrain from engaging in “political dis­cus­sions” ’ and would instead con­cen­trate on his role as the chair of the Football Fed­er­a­tion of Armenia. 

Political analyst Armen Minasyan of the Yerevan-based Agora public policy think tank told OC Media that a single res­ig­na­tion could not have a large impact on the future of Armenia. But nev­er­the­less, he said Vanetsyan’s res­ig­na­tion was important in the context of current political processes in Armenia. 

‘The head of the NSS is one of the most influ­en­tial people after the Prime Minister’, Minasyan said, adding that the dis­agree­ments in Pashinyan’s team and excessive pressure by Pashinyan could be some of the reasons that led to this situation. 

‘This weakens Pashinyan’s positions, but one indi­vid­ual doesn’t have that much influence as we have a gov­ern­ment which relies on trust towards [only Nikol Pashinyan].’

According to Minasyan, the debates over ‘epaulettes’ and ‘an officer’s honour’ mean that, pre­sum­ably, there are some orders which sub­or­di­nate struc­tures do not receive pos­i­tive­ly. 

‘Vanetsyan’s res­ig­na­tion will affect the National Security Service’, he said. ‘I believe the state­ments they make have a bad impact on the security officers.’