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On January 15, Minister of Internal Affairs of Armenia Vahe Ghazaryan and his deputies gave a press conference, during which he provided false and contradictory information.
Bizarre calculations
During the press conference, Minister Ghazaryan claimed that the number of traffic accidents has decreased, comparing the statistics of the first 15 days of 2023 and 2024.
“In 2023, we had 168 traffic accidents… As of today, we have 135 cases in 2024, that is, we have a decrease of 41 cases,” said the minister.
However, according to the statistical data presented by the minister, there is a decrease of 33 cases, rather than 41 cases.
The minister also refers to the number of people who died or were injured in road accidents, again comparing the first half of January 2023 and 2024. He claims that the number of people who died from road accidents last year was 23, while it was 5 this year, noting that the difference makes 19. However, a basic arithmetic operation shows that the difference makes 18.
The minister is also wrong about the statistical data related to people injured in road accidents. According to him, in the first half of January of the previous year the number of injured in road accidents was 256, and in 2024 – 223, noting that the number has decreased by 61, while the difference makes 33.
At the same time, it should be noted that 15 days is not a sufficient time period for making claims about the positive or negative dynamics of accident statistics. Therefore, claims about the positive dynamics of the number of accidents are groundless and manipulative. Earlier, Artur Khudinyan, Head of the Patrol Service, made similar claims on Public TV, comparing data of 1.5 months.
In fact, according to the data reported by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Chief of Police Aram Hovhannisyan, in the 11 months of 2023 (the data for 12 months has not yet been finalized), compared to the same period of 2022, the number of road accidents increased by 258, and the number of people who died from road accidents increased by 52, while the number of people who were injured increased by 340.
Are patrol officers overloaded with additional functions?
Vahe Ghazaryan also referred to the journalist’s question about overloading the Patrol Service with functions outside the scope of their obligations.
“Patrols do what is provided by their functional obligations, there is no other… Regarding the escorts, we have an escort platoon, which mostly performs the works,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs.
| The Union of Informed Citizens NGO previously referred to the involvement of the Patrol Service in functions not provided for in the Charter. |
For instance, escorting is not mentioned in the functions assigned to patrols, but in fact patrols are engaged in such activity; patrols in the Yerevan city regiment and regional battalions regularly perform the functions of escorting high-ranking officials (mainly the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia).
The organization also recorded a case when the patrol service car accompanied the passenger car of the Ministry of Defense. In response to the NGO’s inquiry as to which clause of the Charter covered this activity, the authorized body replied that the function of escorting is identical to the functions of ensuring road traffic safety.
| Read the article “Patrol Service is overloaded with extraneous functions“. |
Thus, the minister’s assurances that the Patrol Service is not assigned functions beyond those reserved by the Charter, do not correspond to reality.
Nane Manasyan
