NEWSPAPER: ARMEN GEVORGYAN STEPS DOWN AS DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA FOLLOWING SURIK KHACHATRYAN’S APPOINTMENT AS SYUNIK GOVERNOR
by Ashot Safaryan
Friday, October 10, 12:01
Armen Gevorgyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Territorial
Administration of Armenia, has tendered his resignation after Surik
Khachatryan was reappointed as Syunik Governor, a Yerevan-based
newspaper Irates-de-facto writes. According to the source, Gevorgyan
filed resignation yet two weeks ago, actually, immediately after
Khachatryan’s reappointment. “A day after Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan’s extraordinary step, ‘the direct supervisor’ of governors
packed up his belongings,” the paper writes.
Khachatryan’s reappointment sparked public protests in Syunik and
then throughout the country. Regional businessmen and intellectuals
are among the protesters.
To recall, Khachatryan resigned from the post of the Syunik Governor
following shootouts in front of his house on June 2 2013 when the
former candidate for Goris mayor Avo Budaghyan was killed and his
brother Artak Budaghyan, a commander at a military unit in the
NKR was wounded. There was another wounded, Nikolay Arustamyan, a
relative and bodyguard of Governor Suren Khachartyan. Syunik Governor
Suren Khachatryan’s son, Tigran Khachatryan, was arrested over the
shootouts. Earlier, the governor’s bodyguard Zarzand Nikoghosyan was
arrested over the case. However, the Court terminated the case and
set free the Governor’s son and his friend.
To calm down the tensions in Syunik, parliamentarian Vahe Hakobyan,
the son of Zangezour copper and molybdenum plant’s ex-director Maksim
Hakobyan, was appointed as Syunik Governor. However, according to
ArmInfo’s data, Surik Khachatryan, who enjoys the support of the
country’s leadership, put a spoke in the young governor’s wheel.
Actually, Vahe Hakobyan was reluctant to send in his resignation.
From: A. Papazian