15:05, 5 December 2016

Armenian Parliament rejects draft law on lustration

The building of the Armenian Parliament. Photo by Tigran Petrosyan for the "Caucasian Knot"

In Armenia, out of 104 MPs, 70 voted against a draft law on lustration of former Soviet KGB agents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that for a long time, members of the "Heritage" Party come forward with initiative to identify and dismiss civil servants, who before the referendum on the independence of Armenia worked for the Soviet KGB. On November 3, the draft law was rejected by members of the government, who claimed it had been poorly designed and that the very problem of lustration was no longer relevant.

The draft law was supposed to impose a ban to hold public posts on agents of secret services, intelligence and counterintelligence or persons who collaborated with secret services of foreign states until September 21, 1991.

30 Armenian MPs voted in favour of adoption of the draft law proposed by Zarui Postandjyan, an MP from the "Heritage" Party. 70 MPs voted against the draft law, and other four MPs abstained.

Let us remind you that in 2011, a draft law on lustration proposed by the opposition was rejected by the government. Then, the leaders of the "Heritage" Party stated that they were not trying to start a "witch hunt" with the law.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Tigran Petrosyan

Source: CK correspondent