The 33-year-old mayor, Arush Arushanian, who has challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in the past, spent several months in jail before receiving in March 2022 a suspended prison sentence for assault and abuse of power. A Goris 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 municipal council of Goris on August 16 that it must remove Arushanian from office.
The council controlled by Arushanian’s bloc rejected the demand, saying that Armenian law does not require it to impeach the mayor in such cases. The Probation Service responded by accusing Arushanian of violating terms of his suspended six-month jail term and petitioning the Goris court to send him back to prison.
The court opened hearings on the demand on Tuesday. The presiding judge seemed in no rush to rule on it, scheduling the next hearing for September 10.
“I will not step down,” Arushanian told reporters after the first hearing. “The people elected me for a second time [in 2021] … and gave me a nearly 70 percent vote of confidence.”
Arushanian spoke after being greeted by a group of supporters outside the court building. They praised his track record and accused the Armenian government of seeking to oust him to quash local opposition to more territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
However, the heavily tattooed mayor again insisted that he does not regard the arrest warrant sought for him as political persecution. He said his supporters should not “get emotional.”
Arushanian, who has run Goris since 2017, was one of the four heads of major communities of the Syunik province who were arrested shortly after June 2021 parliamentary elections on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated. They all had demanded 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.
Arushanian has avoided publicly criticizing Pashinian for the last two years, fueling media speculation that he is no longer affiliated with the Armenian opposition. He said on Tuesday that he is cooperating with the central government only for the sake of “developing” his community.