Nikol Pashinyan Appoints Popular Republican Son-in-Law to New Position, Whose Father is a Community Leader

The newspaper 'Hraparak' reports: 'Nikol Pashinyan is already distributing positions even before taking office as Prime Minister. Yesterday, he appointed two deputies for the Ararat Regional Governor, one of whom is former My Step MP, former investigator Sergey Atomyan, who was not included in the Civil Contract party list and resigned his mandate just days before the elections. Just a day prior to our conversation, he assured us that he was not included in the list by his own choice, as he wanted to return to the “professional sphere.”

We inquired: since when has the regional administration become a power structure that you also want to return to professionally? Atomyan replied that he found it appropriate at this moment. He did not explain why he changed his intentions in a matter of a few days—because he himself doesn't know, as Nikol Pashinyan makes such decisions unilaterally. He is fulfilling promises made to his teammates before the elections and will place all party members who were left off the list into positions to prevent the formation of a protest army against him.

The other deputy governor is Gevorg Simonian, son-in-law of former Republican MP Murad Muradyan and son of community leader Gukas Simonian from Darakert. The village mayor father is close to the regional governor and has worked for the ruling party in the elections. However, the relationship between Muradyan and his son-in-law has soured.'

For more details, refer to today's edition of the newspaper.