The security officer, Sargis Hovannisian, became a deputy director of a state-owned power plant in Yerevan after being sacked last year as chief of the State Protection Service (SPS), an agency providing bodyguards to Armenia’s top state officials.
Multiple media outlets reported that Hovannisian punched the chief of the plant’s security service, Artur Pahlavuni, in the face during a heated argument on Thursday. According to Mediahub.am, the row broke out after Hovannisian ordered security guards to bar Pahlavuni from parking his car inside the plant’s premises because of the latter’s refusal to stop feeding stray dogs roaming the area.
Pahlavuni, who happens to be Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinian’s father-in-law, essentially confirmed those reports when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
“That man [Hovannisian] doesn’t like animals,” he said. “I feed [dogs] every morning so that they are not hungry. He told me to not feed them so that they don’t come here.”
Pahlavuni also confirmed that he was injured in the fight and received medial aid in hospital before reporting the incident to the police. A criminal inquiry into it was then launched by Armenia’s Investigative Committee.
Meanwhile, Hovannisian refused to comment on the reported assault. He said he has nothing to add to what Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosian said in the Armenian parliament earlier in the day,
Answering a question from an opposition lawmaker, Sanosian downplayed the incident and said he is “sorry” for it.
Hovannisian, who has the rank of major-general, was notorious for violent conduct when he ran the SPS. In 2021, he was caught on camera kicking an opposition protester in Yerevan. He was not prosecuted or subjected to disciplinary action.
A year later, Hovannisian reportedly assaulted two journalists covering renewed anti-government protests. The Investigative Committee cleared him of any wrongdoing, saying that the journalists interfered with the official’s work and ignored his legitimate orders to stop filming him and asking him questions.
Opposition leaders questioned the legality of Hovannisian’s presence at the street protests. They argued that the SPS’s powers do not include crowd control. They also accused the then SPS chief of ordering riot police to beat up opposition supporters demanding Pashinian’s resignation.
The SPS faced stronger criticism earlier in 2022 after a police car leading Pashinian’s motorcade hit and killed a pregnant woman in Yerevan. None of its officers was prosecuted for that.
Pashinian fired Hovannisian in September 2023 the day after a powerful fireworks display near his official residence which allegedly scared and angered the prime minister.