Armenian Justice Minister resigns after photo surfaces of his deputy with Kocharyan’s daughter

By Arshaluys Barseghyan,oc-media.org

Armenia’s Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan has resigned after the ruling party demanded his dismissal following his appointment of a deputy who appeared in a 2019 photo with former President Robert Kocharyan’s daughter.

Minasyan officially tendered his resignation on Tuesday, according to his post on Facebook.

“Today I have decided to join the petition against my tenure. I submitted my resignation to the Prime Minister,” he wrote, referring to the petition calling for his dismissal published on 25 September.

He also noted that it was hard to hold a ministerial position without having “positive cooperation with even one MP”.

“I learnt that I have a problem with about two dozen MPs from the Civil Contract faction,” Miniasyan wrote.

While the petition was not made public, members of the Civil Contract party confirmed to media that they were pushing for Minasyan’s dismissal because they were discontented with his personnel policy.

Calls for his dismissal came weeks after an image dating back to 2019 showing his deputy, Sirvard Gevorgyan, posing for a picture with Kocharyan’s daughter Gayane Kocharyan and former Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan surfaced on the internet. Gevorgyan can be seen holding a copy of Kocharyan’s autobiography.

Gevorgyan resigned as deputy minister on 26 September, a day after the ruling party called for Minasyan’s dismissal.

Following her resignation, Minasyan stated that “the ministry and the government had lost a really valuable specialist and administrator due to the excessively unfair and nitpicking attacks from separate individuals”.

Following his resignation on Tuesday, Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan cited “incomprehensible things” Minasyan had done behind calls for his resignation.

“For example, the last appointment; […] I could not and will not be able to explain such a step to our voters.”

Earlier, Hovik Aghazaryan, a Civil Contract MP, told RFE/RL that the party wanted to dismiss Minasyan for his family ties, among other undisclosed reasons.

The former minister’s brother, Mikayel Minasyan, is the son-in-law of Armenia’s former President Serzh Sargsyan and is wanted on several charges, including the illegal acquisition of property.

Their father, Ara Minasyan, who served as a director of one of the major hospitals in Armenia, is also wanted on embezzlement charges.