Thursday, January 13 2022 11:54

ArmInfo. Rector of the Russian-Armenian University, former Prime Minister of Armenia Armen Darbinyan made a post on his Facebook page in which he warned of his possible resignation due to unprecedented pressure from certain circles in the  Russian Federation and in Armenia itself to remove him from office. 

He also warned that in order to solve this problem, the Prosecutor  General's Office of Armenia, at the suggestion of Russian colleagues,  according to his information, is preparing a completely far-fetched  and unsubstantiated criminal case about allegedly incorrectly held  competitions and violations of regulations.

"These <smart people> don't realize they're playing with fire. Even  if all the prosecutor's offices of the world unite, they will not be  able to make a corruption case neither against me nor against the  university.  Everyone knows this, it will be confirmed by thousands  of graduates of our university and each of its students", Darbinyan  noted.

Darbinyan believes that the real reason for the pressure on him is  that some Russian circles seem unable to forgive him for his worthy  position in connection with the 2020 Azerbaijani aggression. "In the  hottest phase of the war, with catastrophic national losses, I  publicly opposed Dmitry Medvedev, Dmitry Peskov, hinting that  Armenia, the Armenian people, expects an allied approach from Russia,  and not just the role of a mediator. Perhaps these publications were  too emotional, did not take into account current geopolitical events.  But they were sincere, based on an unshakable faith in the  Armenian-Russian fraternal relations and their indisputability. They  did not forgive me for the open letter to Margarita Simonyan, in  which I demanded that she show respect for the political choice of  the Armenian people. And these circles, clearly acting against the  interests of both Russia and the Armenian-Russian cooperation, have  been sparing no effort for almost two years now to discredit my  reputation and the high reputation of the Armenian-Russian  University", the RAU Rector emphasized.

In this regard, he added that there are forces and figures who gladly  joined this process in the ranks of both the former and the current  authorities of Armenia. In particular, thanks to their efforts, even  during the presidency of Serzh Sargsyan, the essentially absurd topic  of the allegedly "Western" nature of the university was promoted:  "The university, which goes back to the best Armenian-Russian  educational traditions, has had a huge positive impact on our an  exceptional example of academic freedom, raising the prestige of  Russian education in our country, and there are no grounds to accuse  us of "insufficient Russianness" .  Darbinyan noted with regret that  the aforementioned circles managed to mislead Russian Foreign  Minister Lavrov (materials about the details of the latter's meeting  with the RA parliamentary delegation were widely disseminated in our  information field). "A year ago, there was also an unsuccessful  attack by the NSS on me, which belongs to the same series. And here  is a new attack from the Prosecutor General's Office," Darbinyan  wrote. He informed that in order to aggravate the situation, it was  decided to transfer the investigation to the anti-corruption body.  The "case" is completely fabricated and invented. . They have one  goal - to achieve my resignation or dismissal at any cost. My goal is  one. To protect the reputation of the university and its good name in  every possible way," Darbinyan emphasized.

Darbinyan noted his possible resignation, because in the conditions  of the short-sighted and harmful behavior of the representatives of  the founders of the university, it is impossible to ensure its  further victorious movement forward: RAU is one of the best  universities in the region - it is 200 points ahead of the same Baku  State University in the international rankings. <However, I will only  retire after closing this fake case and receiving an apology. And  after my resignation, I will redouble my efforts to protect the  sovereignty of our state and restore the cherished dignity of the  Armenian people," Darbinyan said.