The 33-year-old-mayor, Arush Arushanian, has run Goris since 2017. He was one of the four heads of major communities of Syunik province who were arrested shortly after the June 2021 parliamentary elections on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated. They all demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation before joining the main opposition Hayastan alliance set up by former President Robert Kocharian in the run-up to the snap polls.
An opposition bloc led by Arushanian defeated Pashinian’s Civil Contract party by a wide margin in a local election held three months after his arrest. The reelected mayor was released from jail in March 2022 right after receiving a suspended six-month prison sentence.
Arushanian was acquitted of vote buying but found guilty of assault and abuse of power. A Syunik court also ruled that he cannot hold any local government posts for the next five years. The verdict was subsequently upheld by two appeals courts and took effect on July 24.
Citing this fact, the Armenian Justice Ministry’s Probation Service notified the Goris council on August 16 that it must remove Arushanian from office. The council controlled by his bloc rejected the demand on Monday, saying that its fulfilment is “outside the scope of the council's authority” because Armenian law does not regulate the impeachment of mayors convicted by courts.
“Arush Arushanian continues to perform his duties,” a lawyer for the Goris mayor told the Hraparak newspaper on Wednesday.
There was no immediate reaction to his defiant stance from the Probation Service or other government bodies.
Arushanian has avoided publicly criticizing Pashinian for the last two years, fueling media speculation he is no longer affiliated with the Armenian opposition. But he did greet Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, the opposition-backed leader of anti-government protests in Yerevan, during the latter’s recent trip to Goris.