Foreign Intelligence Service head: Threats to Armenia’s independence, sovereignty come from various countries

There are many threats to Armenia’s sovereignty, independence, and they come from several different countries. The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Armenia, Kristinne Grigoryan, told this to reporters at the National Assembly Wednesday.

Referring to PM Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that at least two CSTO countries participated in the preparation of the 44-day war in 2020, Grigoryan did not comment on the question of which countries he was talking about.

When asked what steps are being taken to neutralize these threats, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Armenia said: “Reforms are being carried out in the security sector of Armenia to neutralize those threats. The priorities of our activities have determined the directions of the external threats, as well as the important intelligence information for the development of the state, which will be collected; they are mainly aimed at neutralizing the external threats of Armenia, which come from various countries and various phenomena. Our intelligence information is aimed at ensuring that policy and political decisions are made on solid information.”

To the question as to whether there are political forces in Armenia that assist those countries, Grigoryan said: “In all modern countries, external security challenges have both internal players and external players, and the Republic of Armenia is no exception.”

Regarding the remark that the Armenian law enforcement officers have not solved such cases, Grigoryan said: “The law enforcement officers are making discoveries, and the criminal cases also testify to that.”

Asked if there is a threat from Russia to Armenia, Kristinne Grigoryan responded: “Threats to the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia come from various countries.”

To the question whether the Foreign Intelligence Service off Armenia will be able to neutralize these threats, the head of this service said: “We are working, doing everything we can, and sometimes we are trying to do impossible things.”

To the question as to which domains these threats are related to, Grigoryan said: “They are related to Armenia’s existence, sovereignty, sovereign decisions, territorial integrity, internal stability.”

And when asked whether there is a threat of a military attack against Armenia, Kristinne Grigoryan said: “There are always threats of a military attack. As long as the relations with Azerbaijan are not normalized as it should be, these threats should be taken seriously. But, also, they should not be overestimated and certain conclusions should not be drawn. We properly evaluate these risks every day and present to the Prime Minister what risks we see.”