National Security Service Must Provide MPs Full Access to State Secrets, Ghazinyan

Arthur Ghazinyan, a member of the ‘Hayastan’ faction of the National Assembly, has stated: “The issue of parliamentarians' access to state secrets has recently become a subject of manipulation by the authorities and a tool to obstruct the activities of the opposition. In this regard, I find it necessary to point out that the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia is the ONLY state institution endowed with a primary mandate, representing the entire people of Armenia, and by the force of law, it already has the right to access state secrets.

The right of an MP to possess state secrets is a mandatory requirement for efficiently executing their functions as established by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Armenia. The National Security Service (NSS) is OBLIGATED to provide MPs with full access to state secrets, unless there are sufficient grounds for denial.

In the case where such grounds exist, the NSS must duly inform the President of the National Assembly; however, this should be an exception to the general rule. An MP should not need to apply to the NSS and submit information about themselves, as that information should already be available to the NSS. If that information is not present in the NSS and they are waiting for MPs to present it, it means that the Republic of Armenia does NOT have a proper National Security Service.

As a PS: To grasp the absurdity of the situation, imagine that the elected President of Armenia, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other officials are applying to the NSS for access to state secrets, and the NSS is deciding whether to accept or deny those requests after discussing them for three months…”.