‘Jhoghovurd’. Names Revealed in the Case of Destroyed NSS Documents: New Discoveries

‘Jhoghovurd’ newspaper writes: Exclusive revelations have been made regarding the destroyed documents of the National Security Service (NSS). Recall that on May 8 of this year, Prime Minister Pashinyan announced during a press conference summarizing his first year in office, "An internal investigation has been underway at the NSS for several months because the previous authorities, according to internal materials, destroyed NSS documents some time before the revolution.” On October 23, NSS Deputy Director, Lieutenant General Stepan Melikonyan stated in an exclusive interview with ‘Jhoghovurd’: "There is no criminal case... what has gone missing is just rumors, internal circulation documents, some examples of which have been restored.”

Furthermore, the newspaper’s sources report that only part of those documents has been restored, and in connection with this issue, former head of the NSS Constitutional and Public Order Protection and Anti-Terrorism Department, Major General Tigran Barskeyan, has been summoned and interrogated by the NSS. It should be noted that in 2012, media reports linked Major General Barskeyan to the events of April 12, 2004, and March 1, 2008. His department was responsible for wiretapping the conversations of opposition figures. He was dismissed from the position in November 2011 allegedly for being aware of impending palace coup attempts but failing to report this to the leadership.

According to the newspaper’s information, all NSS employees have also been questioned, providing specific names and pointing to NSS First Deputy Director Karapet Davtyan, stating that it was he who instructed to destroy those materials. Davtyan, by the way, was dismissed a month after the revolution, on May 29. According to the newspaper’s sources, NSS internal discussions have concluded that the documents were destroyed because there was no need to keep them, and it was a normal process. However, following the uproar, they intended to restore them, which has been partially successful.

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