Artur Vanetsyan vows every effort to remove Pashinyan government

Homeland Party leader and former NSS chief Artur Vanetsyan says his primary objective remains the removal of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government.

In an interview with Hraparak on Friday, Vanetsyan addressed the arrest of fellow party members, politically motivated prosecutions and the prospects for opposition unity ahead of the June parliamentary elections.

Q: You have expressed concern about the prosecution and detention of your associate Khachik Galstyan. What steps are you taking regarding his defense?

Artur Vanetsyan: His legal defense is being handled by a team of attorneys who maintain there are no grounds for criminal prosecution or detention. Beyond the legal process, our political response is public and ongoing.

Our struggle is not limited to Khachik Galstyan. We are fighting for the release of all political prisoners. Party affiliation should not matter. No one should face prosecution for holding views that differ from those of the current leadership.

In my opinion, Armenia today has an unprecedented number of people imprisoned for their political views. We hardly faced such a situation before.

Q: As the election campaign intensifies, do you expect more arrests?

Artur Vanetsyan: Yes, I do. The authorities are not hiding their intentions. They openly warn that those who “misbehave” will be detained. But intimidation through imprisonment no longer works. People are ready to sacrifice their freedom for their principles.

Q: Could such arrests weaken the opposition during the organizational phase of the campaign?

Artur Vanetsyan: That risk certainly exists. Galstyan is the secretary-general of the Homeland Party and has played a major role in organizing our campaign. His removal, even temporarily, complicates our work.

Still, we are prepared. Those currently detained understand what is at stake. In the end, those responsible for unlawful actions will answer before the law and their own conscience.

Q: In the previous election campaign, you did not have someone from your party in such a position, did you?

Artur Vanetsyan: No. However, the first political prisoner linked to our party was Arsen Babayan, who is now Khachik Galstyan’s attorney. That case may have been forgotten, but he was arrested and charged with “usurpation of power” — an entirely absurd accusation. He was detained for a period and later released.

Q: And he never actually usurped power, nor has he since?

Artur Vanetsyan: (Laughs) No, he did not. Most importantly, he was acquitted in court. In other words, he was prosecuted, deprived of his liberty and ultimately it was established that the case had no merit. It led nowhere judicially. I believe the same will happen in Khachik Galstyan’s case.

From the first day of his arrest, I said I could not disclose details due to investigative confidentiality. But I can confidently say there is no real case here. Simply put, the case has no substance. It is a punitive measure and will not lead to any judicial outcome.

I would also mention Aram Kocharyan, head of our party’s Vagharshapat office, who was arrested on December 30. The authorities claim they obtained information about the alleged “crime” on November 16. If that information existed on November 16 and nothing changed afterward, why was the arrest not carried out on November 17 or 18? Why wait until December 30? What was the purpose?

Q: Do you believe the delay was intended to demoralize families and exert psychological pressure on you?

Artur Vanetsyan: Of course, it creates an extremely difficult situation, especially for family members. Khachik has a minor child and Aram also has children. For their families, this is very painful.

But we understand this and so do they. In fact, Khachik is showing remarkable resilience. From detention, he urges everyone not to lose hope and to continue the struggle.

Q: There are also cases where investigations have delayed for seven years.

Artur Vanetsyan: You are referring to Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, another political prisoner. We are living in an absurd time when even clerics are in detention. I’m not sure what to call them – political prisoners or something else. A more accurate term may be “prisoners of conscience,” because they are not engaged in political activity.

Q: Political activity is increasingly equated with acting according to one’s conscience.

Artur Vanetsyan: Yes, exactly.

Q: You mentioned investigative secrecy. The public sees you as someone who knows a great deal because of your former position. Yet neither during previous elections nor since then have you disclosed sensitive information. Should we expect revelations that could help voters make informed choices?

Artur Vanetsyan: I have repeatedly said that I will never make public any information that I accessed during my service.

Q: Would the current authorities act the same way?

Artur Vanetsyan: That is precisely where the difference lies. Although I am not in power, I feel a greater responsibility toward the state, its institutions and statehood itself than they do. They are capable of disclosing any secret at any moment.

Q: Could they fabricate information and publish it?

Artur Vanetsyan: They could fabricate information without considering the consequences. What concerns me most is when information related to the National Security Service is made public. We witnessed something we could not have imagined even in our worst nightmares – the NSS officially responding to a media inquiry about whether someone had allegedly been a KGB agent in the Soviet era.

As former NSS officers, we could have never imagined such information leaving that building.

Q: Some argue that even the Soviet state might not have had such documents in Armenian within KGB archives. Could the document in question be fabricated?

Artur Vanetsyan: I am not making any claims about whether the document is real or fabricated. I do not engage in that debate. My point is that the NSS officially responded to a media inquiry whose very premise was improper. Providing such a response, in itself, is unacceptable.

Q: During an election campaign, strict principles can sometimes benefit an opponent. With limited time remaining, can the opposition consolidate and succeed?

Artur Vanetsyan: I am confident that we can and we will. But effective cooperation among the main opposition forces is essential. If everyone prioritizes their personal ambitions, we will achieve nothing.

At this stage, the main opposition actors are united and working toward a shared goal. That goal must be clearly defined. We must understand why we are running in these elections.

The Homeland Party and I are participating in these elections to remove Nikol Pashinyan and the Civil Contract party from power. My goal is not to become an MP. It is not to lead a parliamentary faction.

I seek the ouster of the current government and will do everything possible to achieve that.