Valeri Osipian, the chief of the Armenian police, on Monday claimed to have eliminated corruption in the police ranks since taking office after this spring’s “velvet revolution” in the country.
Osipian made the statement as he answered questions from Facebook users at the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan. He was asked to comment on critics’ claims that he has been “weak” on crime and traffic rule violations.
“I’m very weak,” Osipian replied with sarcasm. “But I have managed to eliminate corruption in the [police] system.”
He also cited in that regard the recent arrests and prosecutions of prominent individuals connected to Armenia’s former leadership and claimed credit for the fact that there were virtually no reports of vote buying or violence in the December 9 parliamentary elections.
Nikol Pashinian named Osipian to run the national police service on May 10 two days after being elected Armenia’s prime minister following weeks of anti-government protests led by him. Osipian was until then a deputy head of Yerevan’s police department responsible for public order and crowd control.
Introducing Osipian to high-ranking police officials on May 11, Pashinian said one of his main tasks will be to crack down on police corruption which has long been endemic. Osipian replaced virtually deputy chiefs of the police in the following days.
The police chief admitted on Monday there has been a major increase in the number of officially registered crimes in Armenia since then. But he blamed it on objective factors such as a general amnesty declared by the authorities in late October.
The controversial amnesty led to the release of hundreds of convicts. According to the police, some of them have already been arrested for committing burglaries and other crimes.
Osipian also repeated his recent claims that many crimes were underreported by the police under his predecessors. Besides, he said, victims of petty crimes are now less reluctant to report them because of greater public trust in the police.