Arayik Harutyunyan Approves Protest Against Nikol Pashinyan: Statement

As a result of Arayik Harutyunyan's persistence and deliberate violations of the law, Armen Grigoryan, appointed as acting rector of the University of Economics, is organizing a desperate march against the Government and Nikol Pashinyan with a certain group on the morning of September 22 using administrative leverage. This was announced by the "Students of UUE" in a statement.

The statement also mentions, "The fact is that on July 17, due to numerous violations of the law and under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science, Diana Galoyan was elected as the rector of UUE, which, however, the Government of Armenia has not confirmed due to those violations. We learned that yesterday, on September 17, Minister of Education and Science Arayik Harutyunyan met in his office with Armen Grigoryan, whom he unlawfully appointed as acting rector, as well as with five desperate supporters of Diana Galoyan, and together they discussed the process of organizing the march against the Government on Tuesday.

According to at least two participants in the meeting, Arayik Harutyunyan stated that confirming Diana Galoyan as rector is beyond his capability, although he wishes it very much, he cannot do anything because the Prime Minister and the Government will not approve it. However, he personally will not object in any way if a protest is organized against the Government.

Since very few at UUE are now willing to voluntarily participate in a demonstration supporting Diana Galoyan, administrative measures have been applied to ensure a certain group of people, and deans were instructed accordingly. There will likely be no students, as there are almost no neutral students supporting Diana Galoyan, and a few students who elected her as rector are members of the "Victorious" initiative, which has been publicly shared through the media, and whose participation will expose the real forces supporting Diana Galoyan.

It is an undeniable fact that the Minister of Education and Science could very easily prevent the protest against the Government and the Prime Minister because the current head of the university, Armen Grigoryan, is effectively running the university through an illegal order thanks to him. However, seeing this, Arayik Harutyunyan not only does not remove him but also welcomes him to his office and approves the organization of the protest against the Prime Minister. Well... let’s wait for Tuesday and see how right or wrong we were.