"My Step" faction of Yerevan Council of Elders intends to remove  Mayor from post 

ArmInfo.The "My Step" faction of the Council of Elders has begun the process of expressing no confidence in mayor of the capital Hayk Marutyan. According to member of the faction Armen Kotolyan, 39 of the required 33 signatures have already been  collected. "Yes, the process has begun, and I think that Hayk  Marutyan will be dismissed by the end of the month," he said.

According to RFE/RL's Armenian Service, Kotolyan refused to talk  about the reasons for this decision of the authorities, noting that  the faction will provide the public with the reasons for this  decision. However, he did not rule out that such a decision is  politically motivated.

According to the Law on Local Self-Government of Yerevan, after the  submission of a vote of no confidence to the mayor, a meeting of the  Council of Elders is convened on the third working day, at which the  issue of a vote of no confidence is brought up and the new mayor is  elected by secret ballot.  Earlier, the "Haykakan Zhamanak"  newspaper, owned by the family of Prime Minister Pashinyan, published  an unconfirmed article about Marutyan's alleged meeting with second  president of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, the de facto leader of the  opposition "Armenia" bloc. This information was denied by the bloc,  but it became clear that this "fake news" was the result of a "black  cat" that ran between Pashinyan and Marutyan.

Earlier, some media reported that Khachatur Sukiasyan, the closest  associate of Pashinyan, a prominent businessman, head of the  Sil-Group Concern, was allegedly aiming at the place of the mayor of  the capital.  44-year-old Marutyan, who was one of the key figures in  the revolution led by Nikol Pashinyan, was elected mayor in 2018. His  term of office expires in 2023. He turned out to be a good business  executive and the residents of the capital mainly support his  actions. However, Marutyan, unlike the parliamentary elections of  2018, did not openly support Pashinyan in the early elections in June  this year.