ArmInfo. Armenian Minister of Education and Science Arayik Harutyunyan accused the Head of Yerevan State University (YSU) Aram Simonyan of lying and manipulating in order to politicize the criminal cases initiated on the part of his leadership at the university. Harutyunyan said this on February 21 in an interview with journalists.
According to the Minister, YSU Head frankly lies when he says that a condition has been set before him - the 100th anniversary will not be celebrated, since he is the rector. "Such haste and panic are related to the fact that the day before he had learned that, in fact, the next day criminal proceedings would be initiated," the Minister said.
As Harutyunyan noted, the day before he received instructions from the Prime Minister to celebrate the 100th anniversary of YSU on a large scale. "And the commission for organizing events on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of YSU was not formed, since I also headed in parallel the jubilee commissions for organizing events for the anniversaries of Tumanyan and Komitas", he explained. When asked by journalists, however, whether he called for resignation, Arayik Harutyunyan noted: "This is the result of a long conversation, which lasted about 1.5 hours, and also as a conversation with a famous clergyman, it ended with a handshake and wishing success each other. I think that Mr. Rector here turns to rather obvious manipulations in order to politicize criminal cases connected with the years of his leadership in some way. Universities are depoliticized and there can be no political pressure. " As Harutyunyan pointed out, the chief of staff of the Ministry of Education and Science, the heads of departments are members of the Republican Party, and the Ministry of Education and Science does not see any problems in this regard. Nevertheless, as the head of the Ministry of Education and Science noted, the name of Aram Simonyan discredits the university, as it is associated with negative phenomena in an educational institution. Answering the question, finally, whether there is a need for the resignation of YSU Head Aram Simonyan, the Minister replied: "Yes, I see this need, also as a YSU teacher and a graduate of YSU".
To note, the Armenian Police revealed a number of violations and abuses at Yerevan State University. According to the police, 18 YSU employees in 2015-2018 in different months, in fact, did not attend the place of work, being abroad. However, their absence was not recorded in official documents. As a result, 18 million drams were discharged to the absent employees in the line of salaries. In addition, according to the Police, at the conclusion of a transaction with one of the construction companies, one of the heads of the university requested and received a bribe in the form of property worth $ 10,000. According to the investigation, the head of this construction company partially repaired the apartment and the summer residence of this official, installed a heating system there. In return, the company entered into a construction contract with YSU for 400,000,000 drams. Meanwhile, the rector of the university Aram Simonyan made a statement refuting the message of the Police. According to him, there were no abuses in the university, and no staff member was questioned about these facts. ''This is a show'', he said.