Official statistics show that a total of 68 armed robberies, shootouts and other firearm-related crimes were committed in the country in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year increase of almost 55 percent.
Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian expressed serious concern at these figures when she spoke during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“We have a large quantity of missing weapons after the 44-day war,” Pashinian noted in his regard.
He said he has told Interior Minister Vahe Ghazarian to come up with “new methods” of finding and confiscating them. He did not disclose those methods. Nor did Pashinian explain why the authorities have had trouble tracking the weapons which they themselves handed out to Armenians who volunteered or were mobilized to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ghazarian said early this year that as many as 17,000 assault rifles “disappeared” during and after the 2020 war. The Interior Ministry said shortly afterwards that law-enforcement bodies have found the “site” where many of those weapons are located.
It did not give any numbers. It also remains unclear whether they have been confiscated. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday again asked the ministry to provide such information.
Pashinian has repeatedly said that his administration is successfully reforming law-enforcement bodies with the help of the European Union and the United States. However, a prominent civic activist claimed in July that the Armenian police have become less competent, professional and efficient in the last several years. Citing research conducted by his Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) on the basis of police data, Daniel Ioannisian said that only one in four murder suspects in the country has stood trial.