New Charges Filed Against Vardan Ghukasian

The legal team representing the arrested mayor of Gyumri has issued a statement. "For the past two days, the law enforcement agencies of Armenia have been contemplating the issue of instituting a new politically motivated criminal prosecution against Gyumri's mayor Vardan Ghukasian. Ultimately, on October 25, it became clear that a decision had been made to initiate new criminal proceedings, based on statements made more than a month earlier on September 16 and 23, 2025, regarding forming a union of Armenia with other countries, which were described as public calls directed at the renunciation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia (Article 422, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code)."

We find that this charge has no relation to Article 422 of the RA Criminal Code and is simply a manifestation of political persecution for the following straightforward reasons:

First, Vardan Ghukasian, exercising his fundamental right, has merely expressed an opinion by drawing a comparison to the mutual acceptance of unions by other states. Ghukasian has repeatedly underscored the necessity of doing this to protect the independence of the Republic of Armenia. His statements are available online. By this same logic, all recent statements regarding Armenia's accession to the European Union should also be considered evidence of a crime.

Moreover, Armenia is already a member of various unions, including the CSTO, EU, OSCE, Council of Europe, and other organizations.

Second, this criminal prosecution has been initiated more than a month after the ‘criminal’ statement was made, on a Saturday, following actions that occurred just days prior. The conduct of the law enforcement agencies is direct evidence that this charge has no connection to legal principles. If it was viewed as a ‘crime,’ why was the criminal prosecution not instituted immediately after the expression of that position, instead of waiting for more than a month on a Saturday?

Third, it is evident that this criminal prosecution, like the previous one, was initiated within the framework of then Prime Minister’s instruction on October 1, 2025, in the National Assembly to eliminate the elected mayor of Gyumri from political life.

Fourth, speech that contains no elements of violence, which in fact was merely a position or personal opinion, cannot ever be classified as a crime in the context of all international standards and the principles developed by the European Court of Human Rights.

Based on the above undeniable facts, we condemn the initiated criminal prosecution and will employ all possible legal tools to restore the disrupted justice.”