The Investigative Committee refused to name the official or shed light on the accusation. It said only that the criminal case was opened last month.
The suspect is understood to be prosecuted for sharing sensitive archival data with Azerbaijanis. Tigran Grigorian, a lawyer representing him or her, also declined to reveal their identity. Grigorian said his client denies the accusations of high treason and espionage brought by the Investigative Committee.
“[The case] may be about Azerbaijanis who lived in Armenia in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries,” Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Amatuni Virabian, who ran the National Archive until 2020, said the ongoing investigation has targeted his former deputy and four other archivists. In Virabian’s words, they have already been fired by his successor.
Virabian insisted that none of them could have passed any state secrets on to Azerbaijan because no classified documents are kept in the state archive. He also argued that in accordance with Council of Europe guidelines the archive must provide copies of its documents to applicants from not only Armenia but also other member states, including Azerbaijan. He said he therefore hopes that the indicted suspect and the other fired officials will be cleared of any wrongdoing.
Azerbaijan’s leaders regularly refer to much of modern-day Armenia as “historic Azerbaijani lands.” They point to a large number of ethnic Azerbaijanis who lived there until the outbreak of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1988. Yerevan has denounced such statements as covert territorial claims to Armenia.