Andranik Kocharyan Tries to Bring ‘Former Officials’ to Power in Artik

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" writes: The program for the consolidation of communities is igniting new electoral passions in our country. Days ago, the ruling "Civil Contract" party faced defeats in Goris, Meghri, and Gyumri, highlighting the fact that, without Nikol Pashinyan, there is no one capable of solving even minor issues within the party.

At the same time, we are receiving information that there are many individual "game players" within the team, who have begun to declare "officials" in the newly consolidated communities without coordinating with the authorities.

Yesterday, we received signals that semi-criminal elements have begun to surface in Shirak's second-largest consolidated city, Artik, who wish to have their candidate in the upcoming elections, namely Ananik Voskanyan, the head of the Pemzashen community. The latter is more commonly known as the Earth Defender Anan, and before the regime change, he presented himself wherever possible as a man of General Manvel. During this time, he has managed to acquire significant property, including a gas station in his community, an apartment in Yerevan, a luxury SUV, and more.

A person closely intertwined with the former authorities, particularly during election times working for the Republican Party, has boasted that he has solved issues. In particular, it is said that he managed to reach an employee of the Ministry of Defense's criminal investigation department, who contacted National Assembly member Andranik Kocharyan and, after some circumstances, began to declare himself a candidate with official backing or at least as a person with "support" from above.

By the way, Ananik has close relations with former National Assembly member Mushegh Petoyan, who has already moved his business and capital out of the country and now has flourishing businesses in the southern regions of Russia. During the last parliamentary elections, he returned to Artik and opened Kocharyan’s campaign headquarters, actively involving his entourage in the anti-Pashinyan struggle.

However, our sources in Artik insist that, despite the so-called alliance of village heads and the efforts of Andranik Kocharyan and others, the head of the consolidated community will be a resident of the city of Artik itself, as they do not want to hear any name associated with the former authorities, pointing out the zero work done in that city and its surrounding villages over the past 30 years.

In a conversation with us, a regional representative of the ruling party noted that such actions by party members lead to the party's defeat in local self-governance, as they go and work with those who have previously distributed money and benefited from patronage, thus causing disappointment among people regarding the country's future and Pashinyan's persona as well.

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