As we have already informed, after the lists of the political forces participating in the city council election had been made public, a librarian involved in the Hello Yerevan Coalition was summoned and compelled to write an employment termination letter, since she was an oppositionist. The librarian, Anna Uzanyan, went into detail during a conversation with www.aravot.am about how the director had summoned her and asked to write a termination letter. “I worked at the Monument affiliate of the Centralized Library System of Kanaker-Zeytun. On March 25, at the end of the work day, the director summoned me. I had been working very well for 2 years. They were pleased with my work. The director was a good person; there was no problem. They must have already learned on March 25 that I was number 18 on the Hello Yerevan Coalition list; in all likelihood, the head of the community had already summoned the director and warned. For some reason, the library must be a Republican institution. We have carried out all the instructions they have given so far very well, there has been no problem, but I don’t know what my fault is that I cannot be announced as a candidate. My director faced a choice; I had to leave, otherwise, my director would have been dismissed. The director had two underage children.” The director summoned the librarian and said that if “you are on that list, naturally, you must be an oppositionist; therefore, either you or I must resign.” According to Anna Uzunyan, “For some reason, I cannot understand what it matters whether a librarian is an oppositionist or not. I worked with children, that library was in a very bad condition; there were very few readers. I involved a lot of children in my everyday work during those two years, and the salary was so low. I would work selflessly for a 35-thousand-dram salary. The director was in a terrible shape, anxious, stressed out. The director wanted both to resign and to make me write a termination letter. I told the director, ‘I understand your condition, don’t worry, I am not such a person to let anyone suffer because of me.’ I said: ‘But let’s wait till the morning and then think how to solve that problem.’” The director didn’t agree and asked to write the termination letter at that moment, if it was possible. And the librarian wrote it. “The director didn’t want me to delay it. It was needed quickly; the director was told to hurry it up.” Later on when the librarian wrote a letter to the neighborhood administration, saying that they had no write to dismiss her like that, she received a response letter that on the very next day they had employed another person to replace her. “They responded that my job was filled already.” The librarian has also applied to the Human Rights Defender. The ombudsman has promised to deal with the issue, and Anna is now waiting for results.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
