Boris Murazi: The Murder of Armen Israelyan Unites Nikol Pashinyan and Serzh Sargsyan

In 2016, after the murder of Armen Israelyan, Pashinyan said in a speech delivered in parliament:

“It was reported yesterday that a certain Armen Israelyan, commonly known as ‘Baklan,’ was killed in Moscow. He was a former associate of Samvel Aleksanyan, a member of the National Assembly of Armenia. Israelyan was the author of statements accusing Aleksanyan of kidnapping, intimidation, and other serious crimes, the key witness in the criminal cases initiated on the basis of those statements. Just a week ago, Armenia’s Special Investigation Service terminated the criminal cases launched based on Israelyan’s testimony, which serves as undeniable proof of its corrupt practices. It is obvious that Israelyan was killed by a contract killer, and any analysis of the incident leads directly to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.”

Following his victory in the 2018 "velvet revolution," Nikol Pashinyan took no action to investigate the crimes he had previously spoken out against before coming to power. Moreover, when asked by Boris Murazi in 2018 about the contract killing of Armen Israelyan, Pashinyan told journalists that it’s not the prime minister’s role to order criminal investigations.