Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) leader Gagik Tsarukyan issued the following statement today following yesterday’s raid of his private home and questioning by the National Security Service (NSS).

The NSS has launched a criminal investigation of Tsarukyan’s Shangri La Casino on charges of illegal commercial activity. The NSS also claims that PAP activists handed out vote bribes during the 2017 parliamentary election campaign.

Last week, Tsarukyan accused the government of mismanaging the coronavirus crisis and called for Pashinyan and the government to step down.

The NSS has not yet indicted Tsarukyan personally on any of the charges.

Dear compatriots, sisters and brothers.

Thank you very much for your great human support yesterday.

 I am grateful to all the people who showed, by their presence, that there cannot be a one-person government in our country.

I am grateful to those who have never been my supporters, have never voted for me, may have been my opponents, but seeing the injustice and the primitive political order of what happened, they did not keep silent and expressed their indignation. What has happened is very ugly, which is simply called the invention of criminal cases of a political nature.

Why is the government taking such a step? The answer is very simple. Due to the pandemic, an extremely difficult situation has been created in Armenia. Armenia is in a health crisis, the terrible consequences of which our population will still feel.

 The government is responsible for tens of thousands of patients and hundreds of deaths due to its unforgivable lack of seriousness and its lack of imagination. Even at this moment, the government does not have a clear strategy, does not perceive the problem in all its depth. It doesn't know what to do, how to get out of the situation. Social tensions in the country are growing daily. Thousands of people have been left on their own to face the virus, and hundreds of thousands were left alone to face the resultant economic hardship. Dissatisfaction in the country is growing hour by hour.

And what is the government doing? Instead of trying to solve the problem, it is trying to intimidate its opponents.

The law enforcement campaign against me, the initiation of criminal cases started a few days ago, after my famous speech. Frankly, that was to be expected. But in my heart I had a faint hope that the government would perceive the issues raised in my speech as an alarm, perceive it as a warning from a person well aware of the country's economic situation, admit its obvious mistakes and try to find solutions by uniting all forces.

I am grateful for all the messages of support from the political and public circles. This is not my private problem. This is the choice for all of us. The choice is clear. To go the way of solving the problems of the country in a literate and joint way, or to go the way of intimidating those who speak about those problems. I have already made my choice. Judging by the developments, many have made the same choice. I am ready for any scenario.

I appeal to our citizens. Don't be depressed, don't despair, everything will be fine, we will overcome this crisis, even if the authorities and Nikol Pashinyan personally do everything to make the situation worse.

I have only one wish today. I want our country to get out of the current situation, and this government is not able to do that. Finally, our country must calm down.

Dear compatriots, I want to ask all of you to maintain your faith and resolve, and I ask you to always, in all cases, to follow all the anti-epidemic rules. Your health is   my top priority.”