Armenian analyst says political vendettas cannot be resolved legally

Armenian political analyst Suren Surenyants claims that the country’s state institutions have been reduced to instruments of political vendetta, warning that legal remedies are impossible when prosecutions are driven by personal motives.

Speaking outside the Investigative Committee’s Department for Economic Crimes and Smuggling on Tuesday, Surenyants, head of the Democratic Alternative Party and a candidate on the Prosperous Armenia Party’s electoral list, denounced the ongoing investigation targeting party leader Gagik Tsarukyan.

“In Armenia, all state institutions have become tools of political retribution. People are arrested and charged at the whim of one man. In such countries, problems can only be resolved politically,” Surenyants said.

He argued that political crackdowns cannot be settled through the courts. “If the repressive machine devours people and their freedoms, the responsibility of the opposition and society is to break that machine,” he added.