“All of this has a political context. The criminal cases have little to do with reality,” said Zakar Khojabaghyan, a public figure and member of the initiative group supporting Goris mayor Arush Arushanyan and, during a press conference in the Tekeyan Center. Arush Arushanyan, the acting mayor of Goris, the deputy mayor, abd two employees of the community municipality have been arrested.
Zakar Khojabaghyan was indignant. “If one of them is a member of the alliance and has the right, they are obliged to campaign. The other is the deputy prime minister and he is also campaigning. In one case, it is perceived as normal, but in the other, they start manipulating.” Zakar Khojabaghyan is a doctor from Goris. He warned, “The enemy has reached Goris from three sides. The fact is that we have a border in Goris and, due to the problems created, the criminal prosecution and arrest of the current authorities- the mayor and the deputy mayor- disrupts the organizational work of the community. It is an additional risk.”
The initiative group carried out a petition demanding the release of Arush Arushanyan. “9,380 signatures were registered. In other words, about 70% of active citizens who participated in the 2017 mayoral elections are appealing to the prosecutor to release Arush Arushanyan from custody.” In response to the question of whether Arush Arushanyan’s arrest and the Azeri encroachments in Syunik are connected, Zakar Khojabaghyan answered, “It was in of December 2020 when the head of the Vorotan community said that the enemy is doing everything to take a small part of the road because they demand a corridor from us. If we try to refuse, they will start putting pressure on us. We see that. All this can be connected with Arush Arushanyan’s arrest, but there are more common problems. These are someone’s narrow personal ambitions.”
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Tatev Harutyunyan
