Heads of 7 Departments in Gyumri Municipality and All Employees Assigned by the CP Resign

‘Civil Contract’ is attempting to create an artificial governance crisis in Gyumri. Resignation letters have been submitted, not only by the deputy mayors Artur Papikyan and Vahagn Mkrtchyan but also by all employees of the municipality appointed by the CP.

This was stated by Karen Malakhasyan, the leader of the ‘Living Country’ faction in the Gyumri City Council, during a conversation with ‘Factinfo’, referring to the CP's announcement the day before that the party is unilaterally terminating the Memorandum of Cooperation signed on October 30, 2021, between the ‘Civil Contract’ party and the ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ social party.

According to Malakhasyan, at this time, the discussion specifically concerns the heads of 7 departments, as well as other employees, though he could not specify the exact number. “Of course, there are irreplaceable people, but I believe time will be needed to find suitable replacements for them,” he stated.

He noted that there is currently no agenda for initiating a process of expressing distrust in the mayor, and such issues have not even been discussed, while several options exist for resolving the problem.

“At the moment, the situation is quite unclear; the CP has announced that it will hold a press conference soon, while the ‘Balasanyan’ alliance has indicated that it will issue a statement, but so far, no statement has been made, making it difficult to answer any specific questions. In any case, one of the options for resolution could be early elections,” our interlocutor said.

When asked whether the CP is trying to replicate what happened in Alaverdi in Gyumri, the leader of the ‘Living Country’ faction replied that such discussions exist, but for now, according to the CP's statement, they are becoming the opposition. “Of course, such predictions can be made by judging by their tactics in other communities, for example, they are also trying to take power in the Akhuryan community, but at this moment there is no such agenda in Gyumri,” he assured, adding that one of the resolutions to this situation could be for the ‘Balasanyan’ alliance to seek new alliances. “The ‘Balasanyan’ alliance does not have enough votes from 6 members to have a majority and make decisions.”