“I didn’t think that our society could be so tolerant of lies and unprofessionalism. It came as a revelation to me,” Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan told a meeting with his supporters on April 26.

He stated that if tolerance for these two phenomena continues in the country, the society will never heal.

“The first person of the country never made such a statement, 15 minutes after which it would not turn out that he told lies again, but he still has a large number of supporters. This is not normal,” Kocharyan said, calling for tough penalties for lying by officials, including dismissal and a ban for them to hold public office for five years.

“It is necessary to introduce such strict mechanisms,” the ex-president said.

Kocharyan also denounced the appointment of inexperienced persons as ministers, who are at times in charge of several merged spheres at once, stating such a practice led to the current situation in the country.

“And there is no public outcry. This is not normal,” he said.

Robert Kocharyan stressed that “we cannot have a healed society if we do not change these qualities.”