"Unable to Find Other Options, They Want to Cut My Position": Municipal Official Sounds Alarm

Structural changes, essentially political persecution, continue at the Yerevan municipality. This was announced by Mikayel Sahakyan, Deputy Head of the External Relations Department of the Yerevan Municipality, on his Facebook page.

"I have been working at the Yerevan municipality for about 12 years. I am a co-author of the first four-year program for the development of the Yerevan community, which, by the way, is still the foundational document for Yerevan's development. I have made my modest contribution to the establishment of the protocol institute of the Yerevan municipality as the sector’s responsible person, which has allowed Yerevan to present itself well both to external guests and local visitors.

Since 2016, I have been the Deputy Head of the External Relations Department during a period when Yerevan’s international relations were expanding significantly as a result of round-the-clock work until the well-known events of 2018. One day, I will detail the accomplishments we have recorded according to sectors.

Now, about the reality: since the end of 2018, I have repeatedly been "urged"—both directly and indirectly—to submit my resignation and leave my job. Those urging me have absolutely nothing to do with community governance, and I have denied their requests. They have created all possible circumstances for me to leave my job voluntarily, but I have stayed and served for the sake of Yerevan. One day, I will elaborate on how many times I have saved many faces by preventing the tarnishing of Yerevan's good reputation.

Today I learned that, unable to find any other option, they want to cut my position, ultimately to get rid of me and possibly other 'undesirable' municipal employees from the department. To my esteemed colleagues in the finance department, and why only you? You are so petty, believe me, and in that pettiness, you are trying to mix in as much as possible, forgetting that this is a small city, where the pink walls of buildings and old and new courtyards and streets have seen so many things and have answered so many matters that this answer will not be long in coming in the Yerevan way—where the Tri-Color always wins.

After all, you surely have not lived and do not live in Yerevan as much as I do, you surely do not love Yerevan as much as I do, and you do not appreciate its great value, nor can you. I appeal to the factions of the Yerevan Council, to individual members—after all, is a municipal employee protected by law, or can they be dismissed from all concerned and patriotic individuals under 'the law' by violating the 'law'?" wrote Sahakyan.

It should be noted that Davit Khajakyan, the leader of the "LUMP" faction, also made a post regarding this matter on his Facebook page.