Public: There Will Be No Clashes. Hrach Inside, Avinyan Outside

The newspaper "Public" reports: "In September, Tigran Avinyan will finally move to the Yerevan city hall, essentially taking up the position of deputy mayor, or more accurately, the mayor's office. Even at the end of last year, after Hrach Margaryan was ousted, Hrachya Sargsyan was elected mayor, there were long-standing rumors regarding Avinyan's appointment. However, the appointment did not happen, instead, the ruling party officially announced that Avinyan is their candidate for mayor.

The delay in the appointment was due to several reasons. Firstly, the ruling party understands that any position quickly spoils young individuals, and the public tends to 'spoil' a young person in office quickly. Therefore, the appointment should be delayed as much as possible so that it benefits, rather than harms, the candidate. Secondly, well-informed sources in the city hall mentioned that the disagreements between Hrachya Sargsyan and Tigran Avinyan had become so intense that the former was jealous of the fact that he held a quasi-royal status in the city hall, with Avinyan being the ultimate decision-maker. Recognizing this jealousy, Avinyan decided to postpone his entry into the city hall to avoid blowing up the atmosphere and creating unnecessary tension that could impact his ratings and overshadow the elections.

Especially since even without a position, Tigran Avinyan is actively pushing his agenda; he has already managed to install his people through personnel changes across various municipal departments, including heads of communities who are his acquaintances. He has appointed loyal directors in many schools, kindergartens, polyclinics, and other institutions. Various pretexts are used to dismiss current leaders and install his loyalists to work for Avinyan in the election phase. Moreover, for several months, the city hall has been actively conducting a pre-election campaign, visiting various state institutions, discussing issues with different communities, organizing meetings with citizens, and even making foreign visits related to city hall problems, often seen next to Nikol Pashinyan. In summary, they are solidifying the image of Tigran Avinyan as the mayor in the public consciousness.

Regarding why Avinyan decided to enter the city hall now, our sources indicate that the status of deputy mayor will ease the implementation of problems. Additionally, it is time to showcase the work done and gather support. With elections not far off, there is about a year left until the next elections.

Originally, it was decided to hold extraordinary elections for the mayor this October, but internal surveys within the ruling party revealed that Avinyan does not have a significant enough rating to risk that. Our sources indicated that these surveys also showed that there are no other candidates within the ruling party with higher ratings than Avinyan. In any case, Avinyan is seen as the lesser evil. However, the government's strategy will be to fragment the votes, as they did during the 2021 parliamentary elections, by involving 25 political forces, of which only 3 entered the parliament while the remaining 22 siphoned votes from the opposition.

It should be noted that after Tigran Avinyan's appointment, an interesting show awaits in the city hall. The eccentric Hrachya Sargsyan, who poses as a 'Rambo' in front of cameras, and the balanced Tigran Avinyan, who operates in a grey cardinal style, could form a quite captivating duo. Adding to this is the fact that there are representatives of different wings of power within the city hall, making the picture much clearer: the first deputy mayor Levon Khachatryan, deputy mayors Suren Grigoryan and Stepan Machyan are affiliated with the deputy defense minister Suren Papikyan.

Active roles are also played in city management by the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan and his brother Aram Harutyunyan, who runs a private company and manages funding for different projects. In response to our inquiries, a city hall employee stated that they have agreed there will be no clashes after the appointment. The acting mayor will continue in his role, while Avinyan will mostly be outside engaging in meetings and campaigning."
For more details, refer to the newspaper's current issue.