The Most Disgraceful Appointment: This Guy Writes in Armenian with Spelling Mistakes, Says YSU Spokesperson

YSU spokesperson, journalist, and editor Gevorg Emin-Terkyan made a post on Facebook addressing the qualifications of the newly appointed pro-rector Arthur Israelian, a former classmate of Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Arayik Harutyunyan. Below is the full post:

“The Horse of Caesar and the Minister's Donkey

Recently, the most disgraceful appointment at Yerevan State University (YSU) has been that of Arthur Israelian as the pro-rector for International Cooperation and Public Relations. This guy writes in Armenian with spelling mistakes, doesn’t know English or Russian at all, understands nothing about journalism and PR, and manages the YSU centers for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese languages, but doesn’t know any of these languages. He has a glorious past—having participated in all election campaigns of the Republican Party, he is known for his talent to ‘intercede’ for money during exams and has many other ‘advantages’, but he also possesses a unique ‘talent’: he is a classmate of Minister Arayik Harutyunyan.

Thanks to that talent, he was illegally appointed as a member of the YSU Board of Trustees and later became the secretary. After the first meeting, thinking that new personnel should be assisted, I helped him write and compile the minutes of the meeting, but since this young man is shameless and takes advantage quickly, after the second meeting he called me asking for a transcript of the meeting.

After receiving a very polite rejection, he took the material posted on the website, added three sentences to it, and presented it as the minutes. But since he is absolutely illiterate, we had to edit the text so that the minutes of the YSU Board of Trustees would not have spelling mistakes. This is how we reached August when, under direct pressure from the minister, Arthur Israelian was appointed as pro-rector. I would like to point out that in the entire 100-year history of YSU, there has never been a case where the minister appointed his friend as pro-rector.

After his appointment, it became clear that this young man has a problem with ‘visibility’. He began demanding that materials featuring his image stay in the main news section of the YSU website longer, that his name be mentioned six times in the text instead of three, and that video clips featuring him be placed in the most visible spots, etc.

But the most important thing is that Arthur Israelian has become the chief censor of YSU. Absolutely all materials are sent to him, and he decides whether the material should be posted on the YSU website or not. For example, yesterday our censor decided that the material from the impromptu press conference of the Student Council president, vice president, and secretary was ‘too long and one-sided’ and did not allow it to be posted.

In addition, this guy is a bit slow. Since his first day at work, he has been calling our staff and giving orders. My colleagues and I, even the rector, have told him twice that he does not have the right to do such things, but since he understands things very late, he continues to call, although mostly no one answers the phone.

In conclusion, I want to publicly apologize to all those people whom I have ever praised or expressed positively about Arayik Harutyunyan as a minister. Forgive me, good people.”