MP Has Taken Over the SAO, KP Member Appoints Friend as Acting Director and Brother as Deputy Director

David Danielyan, a member of the National Assembly from the "Civil Contract" faction, has been reportedly engaged in resolving issues in addition to his parliamentary duties. This has been reported by ArmLur.am.

Specifically, the media outlet writes: "He has recently been frequently in the spotlight of the media. First, he wanted to shape and manage the council of the Civil Contract party in Kapan according to his taste, and then he took control of the Kapan Medical Center, leading to his close associate being appointed as the acting director of the medical center. It turns out that the artist MP, with a desire to extend his influence, has taken over the ‘Service for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments and Historical Environment’ (SAO). According to information, it is his direct efforts that have led to his army friend Armen Hovhannisyan being appointed as the head of the SAO, and he has also placed his brother, Haik Danielyan, in the same SAO as the deputy director.

That is not all; with the hand of Hovhannisyan, but through his active influence, a purge has begun against employees who participated in opposition rallies. For instance, the former deputy director, whose position is now occupied by Danielyan's brother, was dismissed for appearing with an official vehicle during opposition protests and participating in the rallies. The same reasoning has also led to the dismissal of employees from the SAO's accounting department.

MP David Danielyan, who is an advisor to the aforementioned SAO's director, according to well-informed sources from the media outlet, has also conducted a purge in the Syunik branch of the same SAO, instead of providing advice. According to the rules of the game, friends from the army are placed in the vacant positions from their own circle. Our source pointed out that not only has Sardar Danielyan placed his brother in this organization, but also Armen Hovhannisyan; his sister and brother-in-law are also employees of the same SAO.

Our questions to Danielyan, who has stealthily appeared in the backstage of the ‘Service for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments and Historical Environment’, naturally caused him displeasure, but we encouraged him to return to the realm of constructiveness and answer how it has come to pass that the so-called ‘revolutionary’ government, which accused previous authorities of following the principles of ‘relatives-friends-compatriots’, is now working in the same manner.

"My brother went through a path before being appointed as the deputy director of the SAO, having been one of the employees who ensured security at the same SAO, then reaching the position of deputy head of the provincial service, then an advisor, and only then being appointed as deputy director of the SAO. As for Armen Hovhannisyan, I cannot answer for him. I can only state that, to my knowledge, his sister and brother-in-law have worked at that SAO for a longer time (about 9 years already) than Hovhannisyan," said he in a conversation with ArmLur.am.

In response to our observation that this everything is a clear example of the government serving its own comfort, and that the SAO employees, in fact, have lost their jobs due to opposing views, Danielyan provided a general response: "In Armenia, today, there are no dismissals stemming from political context; everyone leaves according to their own application." Thus, his responses essentially confirmed that the ‘Service for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments and Historical Environment’ has been taken over by him, and he decides who gets appointed and who gets dismissed.