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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/04/2022

                                        Tuesday, January 4, 2022


Armenian Authorities Block Inauguration Of Opposition Mayor

        • Susan Badalian

Armenia - Aharon Khachatrian is sworn in as mayor of Vartenis outside the 
municipal administration building cordoned off by police, January 4, 2022.


Police cordoned off the municipal administration building in Vartenis on Tuesday 
to prevent a local opposition figure from taking over as mayor of the eastern 
Armenian town and nearby villages.

The mostly rural community has been in turmoil since the December 5 election of 
a local council empowered to appoint its mayor. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
Civil Contract party garnered most votes but fell short of an overall majority 
in the 27-member council, winning only 13 seats there.

The remaining 14 seats were won by two local opposition blocs. They reached a 
power-sharing deal and nominated one of their leaders, Aharon Khachatrian, for 
the post of community head.

The 14 opposition members of the new Vartenis council elected Khachatrian as 
mayor during its inaugural session held on December 30. Civil Contract members 
led by Aram Melkonian, Vartenis’s incumbent mayor seeking reelection, tried to 
disrupt the session before walking out in protest.

Melkonian went on to ask Armenia’s Administrative Court to annul the appointment 
of the new mayor, saying that it was “illegal.” The opposition forces dismissed 
the allegation and scheduled Khachatrian’s inauguration for Monday.


Armenia - Vartenis Mayor Aram Melkonian tries to block the first session of the 
new local council controlled by opposition groups, December 30, 2021.

Scores of police officers deployed at the entrance to the local government 
building did not allow the council majority to enter it to hold the swearing-in 
ceremony. Local police chiefs told the oppositionists that Khachatrian cannot 
start performing his duties because of the lawsuit filed by the ruling party.

The ban angered Khachatrian’s supporters who gathered outside the building. “One 
gets the impression that the Civil Contract party has started a civil war 
against residents of Vartenis,” said one of them.

A lawyer representing Khachatrian insisted that council members are legally 
allowed to enter the building regardless of the court case. “The police are 
overstepping their powers,” he said.

Khachatrian had to take an oath of office in the building’s courtyard. His 
loyalists admitted that he will not be able to take office before a court 
verdict.

Meanwhile, Melkonian said that the police acted on his orders. “I personally 
made sure that this buffoonery doesn’t take place,” the incumbent mayor told 
reporters.

Melkonian said that the two opposition forces must not be allowed to run the 
community comprising Vartenis and two dozen villages because they “deceived” 
voters. He did not elaborate.

On Monday, the ruling party’s candidate called on all newly elected council 
members to resign and pave the way for a repeat election.

“The council held a session and elected a community head. What should we annul 
after that?” countered Davit Shahnazarian of the United Vartenis bloc allied to 
Khachatrian’s alliance.

United Vartenis’s leader was arrested on corruption charges shortly after the 
power-sharing deal cut by the two groups. Opposition politicians and human 
rights campaigners in Yerevan condemned his arrest, saying that it is part of a 
government crackdown on political figures who defeated Pashinian’s party in some 
of the three dozen communities across Armenia that elected their local councils 
on December 5.


Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon 
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in 
Yerevan, December 17, 2021.

Arman Tatoyan, the country’s human rights ombudsman, charged on December 17 that 
opposition groups that did well there are being illegally pressured not to 
install their leaders or allies as community heads.

“These practices are fundamentally at odds with democratic norms,” said Tatoyan.

Pashinian’s political allies maintain that neither these nor any other 
post-election criminal cases are politically motivated.

Pashinian’s party suffered its biggest election setback in Vanadzor, Armenia’s 
third largest city. It won only 25 percent of the vote there, compared with 39 
percent polled by a local bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian.

Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But he was 
arrested on December 15 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically 
motivated.

The Administrative Court blocked the first session of the new Vanadzor council 
slated for December 24. It cited an appeal against the local election results 
lodged by another party that fared poorly in the ballot.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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