Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri, has been to Brazil – or as residents of Gyumri would say Rio’s carnival – with a 9-member delegation for 5 days already. This fact has been discussed in the Lennagantsik (residents of Gumri) group on Facebook – many users were interested who was among the members of the delegation and who had financed that expensive trip.
One of the group members wrote addressing journalists, “Dear journalists, let’s see whether you can answer my questions: is there at least one dancer among them, did they learn how to dance samba or are they going to cover themselves with shame? The second question is how much money was spent and the third one is what they could have done in Gyumri for that money.”
Another user added joking, “Have patience, residents of Gyumri, once the mayor deals with Rio, he will come and clean up the ice from the streets.”
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Aravot.am inquired from Boris Aleksanov, the chief of staff of Gyumri City Hall what the reason for the mayor’s visit really was, who accompanied him and for what money the Gyumri delegation reached Brazil. “If you remember, 3 or 4 months ago, Brazilians, the mayor of the city of Osasko, São Paulo State, was in Gyumri. Osasco and Gyumri became sister cities and an agreement on mutual visits was reached. Now our delegation has left for Osasco, at the invitation of the mayor of Osasco, I know that the mayor, deputy mayor Gagik Manukyan and member of the city council Hamik Poghosyan are in the delegation of the city hall, I don’t have any information about the others,” said Mr. Aleksanov.
Let us mention that Zhora Mikayelyan, the head of urban development inspectorate, was among the members of the delegation. This fact was verified by the department of urban development of the regional administration of Shirak. When we called them, asking for Zhora Mikayelyan’s phone number, they said that we would waste our time, since he was not in the town, he was in Brazil.
It might seem strange, but Vahan Gasparyan, the director of South Caucasian Railways CJSC, who was formerly a member of the city council, is among the members of the delegation. Some relatives of the mayor are also with them.
In response to our question whether the mayor had gone because of the carnival, Boris Aleksanov said that according to his information, the carnival would start on February 22 and the Gyumri delegation had gone to establish new connections and new relations. According to Mr. Aleksanov, the residents of Gyumri will stay in Brazil for 10 days and will return to Gyumri on February 27. In response to the question mostly concerning residents of Gyumri for what money the delegation went on such an expensive trip, our interlocutor said briefly, “I cannot say, I don’t have information on that.”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
