Arabkir Gym School Director: “Local officials want to fire me for not
collecting votes for Serzh”
16:56, February 22, 2013
Ashot Gharagyozyan, the director of the `Games Gymnastics Scholl in
Arabkir, came to the Hetq office and related what happened to him in
the context of the February 18 presidential election.
“Yesterday I received a call from the Republican Party campaign HQ in
Arabkir. Those who told me to visit were Hrayr Antonyan, the Arabkir
District Leader and Yerevan Municipal Councilman Arayk Mkhitaryan.
They asked me why Serzh Sargsyan lost in Arabkir. I told them I didn’t
know. I said I was never the president of the election committee or
the head of the local campaign HQ. Thus, I wasn’t responsible for
anything. I told them I was never given any responsibility in terms of
collecting votes.’
They told me I should write a letter of resignation. I asked why. They
said because all of us had lost, the president, in Arabkir. I asked
what connection did I have in the matter and that I was only
performing my work in the gymnastics school.
They began to hurl sexual expletives at me. They repeated that I would
have to write a resignation letter and that my replacement had already
been assigned. `We have paid him off,’ they said. `With that money in
their pocket they will do everything to bring in votes in the next
election.’
I am deeply insulted. I’ve had a few heart palpitations since the
morning and have called an ambulance several times. What type of
gangsterism is this? What perversion? Who has ever witnessed a
government official, a member of the Yerevan Council, act in such a
manner? Who saw fit to appoint him to such a post?
There curses and awful behavior…They wanted to strike me. For what?
There were others present as well bit I didn’t know them.
I won’t go to the police. But I want to tell what happened through the
press. I have written a letter to the president and the human rights
defender.”
P.S. We have tried to contact Hrayr Antonyan and Arayik Mkhitaryan,
but to no avail.
(The above photo was taken on August 10, 2011. It shows Hrayr
Antonyan, the Arabkir Deputy District Head at the time, on Papazyan
Street directing the dismantling of sidewalk kiosks.)