I see no grounds for dismissing the governor of Shirak — PM

Arminfo. I see no grounds for dismissing the governor of Shirak Province. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this to journalists during a briefing on October 29.

<To be honest, I have not looked deeply into the details, and I do not know what he said, but in any case, one must be as correct and cautious as possible in one’s statements? If he allowed himself to say something imprudent, I am very sorry, and I hope everything will be settled>, the prime minister noted.

It should be recalled that Shirak Province Governor David Arushanyan posted an angry statement on his Facebook page in connection with the festive events organized by Samvel Karapetyan’s “Strong Armenia” party on the occasion of Gyumri Day.  “Several video cameras, several concerned faces, several grandiloquent phrases about ‘our Gyumri’—and there you have it, another political performance is ready. All that remains is to find spectators. But there is one small inconvenience here: Gyumri is not your ‘Nizhny Tabor,’ and the people of Gyumri are not your ‘Ivans,’” Arushanyan wrote.  As a postscript, he added: “We are a hospitable people, and our guests are above all else to us. But do not try to jump above our heads—you will hurt yourself falling from such a height.  Touring performers, be careful:”

In connection with this statement, the Russian Embassy in Armenia issued the following statement: “We would not like to think that an official heading a region where the 102nd Russian military base and Russian border guards serve considers it acceptable to make public statements that could provoke national hostility toward Russians, which would fundamentally contradict the spirit of the centuries-old friendship between the peoples of our countries>.

The Russian Embassy in Armenia also drew a parallel between Shirak Province Governor David Arushanyan’s statements about certain “Ivans” and the vocabulary of the German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.