“I will not take on the role of judge,” Avinian told a weekly meeting attended by the district chief, Tigran Ter-Margarian, and other municipality officials. He pointed to an ongoing criminal investigation into last Wednesday’s incident.
Investigators have charged Ter-Margarian and three other local officials with assaulting the blogger, Artur Chakhoyan, in the district administration building. But they have refrained from arresting any of the violent officials. They have also indicted Chakhoyan in connection with another, nonviolent incident that happened there on Tuesday.
“Every employee of the Yerevan municipality, and in particular the heads of administrative districts, who are the representatives of the Mayor of Yerevan in a given administrative district, are obliged to show restraint” said Avinian. “Provocations are always there, everywhere, and always will be.”
“Yes, the scene was not pleasant,” replied Ter-Margarian. “Once again, I apologize and assure you that I have come to many conclusions myself since then.”
The district chief did not reveal those conclusions. He had insisted right after the assault that he did “the right thing.”
Ter-Margarian is a senior member of the pro-Western Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party that helped Avinian become mayor in the wake of the ruling Civil Contract party’s worse-than-expected showing in a 2023 municipal election. Hanrapetutyun members were appointed to run Nor Nork and another district, Malatia-Sebastia, as part of a power-sharing deal struck by the two parties.
The Malatia-Sebastia chief, Romik Mkhitarian, said on Thursday that he and all other officials affiliated with Hanrapetutyun will resign if Ter-Margarian is sacked. The statement was widely construed as a warning to Avinian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The mayor chided Mkhitarian on Monday for making the “wrong statement.” He said he cannot be guided a “partisan logic.”
Still, Avinian’s reluctance to fire Ter-Margarian is bound to stoke speculation that he and Pashinian let the Nor Nork chief get away with the violent conduct for fear losing control of the municipal administration. Pashinian’s party controls only one-third of the seats in the city council empowered to appoint and dismiss the mayor.