Begoyan Denies Giving Warning to Employee for Liking Marutyun's Post on Facebook

Armen Begoyan, the director of Yerevan Municipality's "Greening and Environmental Protection" organization, stated today during a conversation with journalists at the city hall that he did not give a warning to an employee for liking a Facebook post by Haik Marutyun. "This is a fabrication," he asserted.

In response to a question about whether he had reprimanded an employee for liking Marutyun's post, he explained, "There is a labor code, and when an employee does something, including being late to work, you must request a written explanation from them for being late. In that written response, you must indicate that depending on their reply, there could be disciplinary actions, which has been done."

When asked what the employee had done, he replied, "This is being manipulated by the current leader of the 'National Progress' party. The employee claims that I liked a political statement, but that is not true; it is not a political statement. My attention has been drawn by their colleagues, specifically employees from the Waste Recycling Department, who approached me and said that there was a problem, showing me what their colleague had done on social media, which they deemed offensive. They don’t even greet each other because the employee, by liking Haik Marutyun's post, effectively considers his colleagues to be hooligans."

Begoyan emphasized that in order to avoid conflict, he has strictly instructed employees not to clarify any relations with that colleague and stated that he would apply the relevant measures stipulated by the labor code, which he has done.

According to him, liking political posts is a personal matter for everyone. "He has always liked political statements; that is his business. However, Pedro Zarokyan, a council member from 'National Progress', posted my picture on his page and wrote, 'this liar.' Where have you ever seen an employee of an organization approving a post that calls their director a liar? Furthermore, Haik Marutyun shared a video of the well-known incidents on Tumanyan street, captioning it 'Greening Hooligans.' And that employee approves Marutyun's post. Thus, our employee is speaking purely untruths; this is not about liking political statements, but about endorsing all offensive statements directed at the leadership of the organization and their colleagues."

He added that the employee had replied to his message, saying, "Now I need to review that response and decide accordingly. I cannot say at this moment whether I will impose a disciplinary penalty or not."

According to Begoyan, the employee's brother works in the organization he leads and is considered a fairly good employee. "So if there is a problem, then why is his brother always getting praise while he, on the contrary, faces these issues?"

It should be noted that recently, former Yerevan Mayor Haik Marutyun posted on his Facebook page that the director of the 'Greening and Environmental Protection' organization sent a letter to his employee informing him that he had endorsed his Facebook post, thus showing 'disrespect towards the organization.'