By Mark Dovich
Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party ousted three opposition members from Yerevan city council Tuesday, taking the total number of expulsions at city hall so far this year to six.
The 65-member council voted 33-0 to remove Grigor Yeritsyan and 33-4, with one abstention, to eject Anush Ginosyan and Anush Khudaverdyan, citing excessive absenteeism.
Following the latest municipal elections last year, many opposition councilors began boycotting legislative sessions in an act of protest, but under Armenian law, elected representatives can be removed if they fail to appear at a majority of votes.
The three expelled councilors decried their ouster as politically motivated and accused Mayor Tigran Avinyan, a close political ally to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, of orchestrating the vote behind the scenes.
“Dear Mister Avinyan, this was pretty good political dealing. I appeal to the people of Yerevan – next time, think hard before you vote,” Ginosyan said.
Yeritsyan headed National Progress, the main opposition party at city hall, while Ginosyan and Khudaverdyan initially represented but then broke with Public Voice, a fringe party linked to Vardan Ghukasyan, a controversial blogger more widely known by the nickname Dog.
The knife’s-edge vote fell along party lines, with Civil Contract and its minor coalition partner, the Republic party, approving the motion.
What’s the context?
Tuesday’s vote marks the second time since Avinyan was reelected last year that city hall has removed opposition members.
In February, councilors moved to expel Hayk Marutyan, Sona Aghekyan, and Narine Hayrapetyan, also citing excessive absenteeism. Following that vote, Marutyan, a former Yerevan mayor turned prominent government critic, pledged to contest Armenia’s next parliamentary elections, slated for 2026.
Recent years have seen a string of instances where Civil Contract has appeared to obstruct or undermine the democratic process after highly competitive local elections produced results favoring its opponents.
That includes Vanadzor, Armenia’s third-biggest city, where former Mayor Mamikon Aslanyan was arrested on charges of abuse of power and fraud less than two weeks after leading his party to victory over Civil Contract in local elections in December 2021. That paved the way for Pashinyan to appoint Arkadi Peleshyan, a convicted criminal, as Vanadzor’s acting mayor.
In another highly publicized case, Civil Contract succeeded last December in toppling Arkadi Tamazyan, the prominent opposition mayor of the northern mining town of Alaverdi. Council members then moved immediately to install a Civil Contract member as mayor.
“Civil Contract members have allowed Alaverdi to collapse for the sake of their own ambition,” Tamazyan told CivilNet at the time. “Is this what Mr. Pashinyan’s democracy, which he talks about endlessly, looks like?”
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