Gyumri City Hall Responds to Incident Involving Vardan Ghukasyan

The Gyumri City Hall has officially stated that the armored vehicle of Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan was pursued today by four police patrol cars while the mayor was on his way to work from his home to the Gyumri City Hall. The distance from his home to the city hall is 300 meters, and there is only one route to the city hall, with no alternative paths available. The mayor travels this route to work every day. It is impossible to violate traffic regulations along this route.

The city hall issued a statement saying, “Therefore, the statement distributed by the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs claiming that the vehicle was operated in violation of traffic rules is absolutely false.” According to the senior inspector of the police patrol service in Shirak region, the vehicle was supposed to be moved to a specially guarded area due to deficiencies found in the vehicle's technical documents. Consequently, the statement from the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs indicates a specific order targeting the mayor of Gyumri, as part of a planned scenario for political retribution through law enforcement agencies.

It should be noted that the mayor's vehicle was not, in fact, moved to a specially guarded area based on a review of the documents within a 10-day period. It is worth recalling that political persecution against the mayor of Gyumri began during the electoral period when he announced his candidacy for the mayoral position.