There Have Been Private Embassies Where Even Property Belonged to a Specific Individual: Pashinyan

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, presented a draft decision to allocate funds to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia during the regular government session today.

The minister stated that in order to enhance the effectiveness of diplomatic service, a fundamental policy was adopted since May 2018 to appoint heads of Armenian diplomatic representations abroad from career diplomats within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs system. 'This has revealed certain requirements for some financial reallocations,' said the minister.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan noted that previously there were appointments to the positions of heads of several diplomatic representations abroad, which did not come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs system, and some had refused their due salaries, family compensation funds, and apartment rentals at their own request.

According to the minister, as a result, there is now a need to allocate 347 million 522 thousand drams to the Ministry for securing the operations of Armenia's diplomatic service bodies accredited in foreign countries in 2019 (115 million 840 thousand drams for the first half of 2019, and 231 million 681 thousand drams for the nine months).

Responding to the minister, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan mentioned that there have been embassies in the past that had almost no state funding.

The minister added that such situations have occurred, and it is these circumstances that have brought to light the issue requiring additional funding.

Continuing, the Prime Minister noted, 'We must admit that it’s quite a strange situation, because it creates the impression that there have been scenarios where there have existed private embassies, meaning embassies where even the property belongs to a specific individual. They act on behalf of the state, but there is no state funding; this is a strange situation, regardless of who the ambassador is.'