168 Hours: 'The 8-Month MP is Building Restaurants' - Karine Ajemian

168 Hours newspaper reports: Former MP and member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Karine Ajemian, stated in a conversation with journalists, "They endlessly talk about corruption... I know MPs who have been in office for only 8 months but have bought large plots of land and are building restaurants. Doesn’t that raise a question about how they became so wealthy so quickly?"

In response to 168.am’s question regarding the names of these MPs who are purchasing land, Ajemian replied, "I will not mention names because I hear things here and there, but I don’t believe these are just rumors. You saw that a 6-month MP received money from the National Assembly for cleaning carpets. None of us would have thought to take money from the budget to clean carpets and turn it into some kind of holiday. These were people who talked big about the looting of the budget. I have always said that the society is sick... if you want to know, in the past 30 years, we have had neither a competent parliament nor competent authorities. Over time, we have formed a bank of specialists, had excellent personnel, and today to talk about the old ones, while having people from the past who are the only ones doing professional work even in this situation, is absurd. If you take them out and bring someone from the street, you could say they will also do it, and you turn the country into a ridiculous place. Given the number of challenges we face, I believe we could lose everything."

To the question of whether she would provide names of those financed by Azerbaijani funds, the RPA member noted, "You can find out yourself. The NGOs that deal with this issue are available for you to check. It’s not that I’m revealing a big secret. Overall, I think that the entire funding to undermine the country comes from there - from the 'Soros' office, Western organizations... they might just be intermediaries."

For more details, refer to today’s issue of the newspaper.