Dozens Protesting Gyumri Mayor’s Arrest Prosecuted

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Law-enforcement authorities made more arrests in Gyumri on Wednesday, raising to 37 the total number of people taken into custody in connection with Monday’s angry protests sparked by the arrest of the city’s opposition mayor.

Mayor Vartan Ghukasyan, the city’s chief architect and six other persons were arrested three weeks after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged to oust him. They all are facing corruption accusations. Ghukasyan rejects the charges as politically motivated.

Security forces met with strong resistance from hundreds of Ghukasyan’s supporters when they raided the municipal administration building in order to demonstratively detain him. The Armenian police had to send reinforcements, including its main riot police units, from Yerevan to overcome that resistance. They clashed with protesters both inside and outside the building.

At least 33 protesters were arrested on the spot or in the following hours as the Investigative Committee launched an inquiry into “mass disturbances” and obstruction of justice. It also arrested on Wednesday morning the acting head of a municipality division, an adviser to Ghukasyan and two members of the city council representing the mayor’s political faction.

The law-enforcement agency said later in the day that it has already indicted 29 suspects and asked courts to remand 19 of them in pre-trial custody. It did not name the suspects or say whether the eight other detainees will be set free.

“The charges are almost identical for all of them, and it is not specified what specific actions they allegedly committed,” Hayk Harutiunyan, a lawyer representing four indicted persons, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Harutiunyan said the Investigative Committee ignored footage disproving its claims that some of the protesters “interfered in the investigation of the case” by assaulting law-enforcement officers and damaging their cars.

The suspects include not only local officials and political figures but also a dozen or so drivers of garbage trucks and other vehicles belonging to the municipality’s utility department. The vehicles reportedly blocked streets leading to the mayor’s office during Monday’s crackdown condemned by the Armenian opposition.

The crackdown came three weeks after Pashinyan said he will “throw out” Ghukasyan from “the political and public arena.” He responded to Ghukasyan’s latest calls for his government to not only repair but also deepen its relations with Russia, saying that they are directed at Armenia’s “sovereignty.” Pashinyan’s political allies confirmed afterwards that the premier intends to oust Ghukasyan.

Speaking in the parliament on Wednesday, the prime minister denied, however, any connection between Ghukasyan’s prosecution and his October 1 pledge to oust the opposition mayor.

Ghukasyan was installed as mayor by four opposition groups that collectively won a majority of seats in the city council in a local election held on March 30. The election results were a serious setback for Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. 

Opposition leaders say Pashinyan is now trying to overturn them. They also claim that the arrests of Ghukasyan and dozens of his supporters are designed to discourage disgruntled Armenians from trying to change their government through elections. Armenia is due to hold a showdown general election next June.

A Yerevan court that sanctioned Ghukasyan’s pre-trial arrest on Tuesday also suspended him as mayor. The country’s second largest city will be run by Ghukasyan’s first deputy and son-in-law, Avetis Arakelian, for the time being.