Police Form Wall in Front of Parakar Municipality

For several days now, a tense situation has prevailed in Parakar. Following the inaugural session of the council on December 20, David Minasyan, the candidate for mayor from the "David Minasyan" alliance, and Volodya Grigoryan, the candidate from the "Living Land" party, announced on their Facebook pages that they have been elected as community leaders.

The "Living Land" party obtained 10 mandates in the 21-member council, and their candidate, Volodya Grigoryan, was elected as the community leader with 10 votes. Although 10 votes is less than 50 percent, the "Living Land" party asserts that if only one candidate is nominated, they can be elected with 40+ percent of the votes. After that, David Minasyan, who is the candidate from the "David Minasyan" alliance, was elected mayor with 11 votes, also supported by members of the ruling party.

Today, the mayor's oath-taking ceremony was to take place. Volodya Grigoryan attended the ceremony and then proceeded to the municipality, but police forces prevented him from entering the municipal building. "Submit a written request, and we will respond to you regarding why we are temporarily restricting your freedom of movement," said a police officer to Mesrop Arakelyan, co-founder of the "Living Land" party, without specifying the grounds for restricting the council members' freedom of movement.