Pashinian pledged to “throw out” Mayor Vartan Ghukasian from “the political and public arena” during his government’s question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament last week. He responded to Ghukasian’s latest calls for the government to not only repair but also deepen its relations Russia, saying that they are directed at Armenia’s “sovereignty.”
Pashinian’s political allies confirmed afterwards that the premier intends to oust Ghukasian. One of them said vaguely that he will be removed by “the people of Gyumri.”
In what the outspoken mayor sees as a related development, police tried to impound his private limousine on Tuesday. Ghukasian claimed that the police action is a further sign that the authorities are planning to arrest him and one of his deputies in a bid to seize power in Gyumri.
Later in the day, Ghukasian’s political faction represented in the city council appealed to the Yerevan-based ambassadors of over two dozen foreign states, accusing Pashinian’s government of persecuting the mayor.
Armenia - Gyumri Mayor Vartan Ghukasian gives a press conference, October 1, 2025.
“The political persecution intensified with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s public order of repression against the mayor of Gyumri,” read the statement by the faction nominally representing the local branch of the Armenian Communist Party (HKK).
“This is a consistent policy against speech, thought and dissent pursued under the guise of democracy,” it said.
The Gyumri council members representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party scoffed at the appeal, saying that Ghukasian is trying to generate outside pressure on Armenia. In a statement, they also hit out at two other local opposition groups that have condemned the government campaign against Ghukasian.
“Vartan Ghukasian is not an elected community head,” said the Civil Contract statement. It claimed that he took office in April thanks to the other opposition forces’ “disdain” for the people of Gyumri.
“Out of 47,443 voters who participated in the Gyumri local government elections, 30,246 voted against Civil Contract and its squeaky little dictator,” Ruben Mkhitarian, a former TV producer leading one of those forces, said on Wednesday.
Mkhitarian claimed that Pashinian wants to depose Ghukasian in order to “maintain his reputation within his own team” and monopolize power in the country.
Armenia - Gyumri residents vote in a local election, March 30, 2025.
“Nikol Pashinian clearly took the Civil Contract party’s defeat in the recent elections in Gyumri very hard and is trying to rewrite the election results,” charged Mayr Hayastan, another opposition bloc represented in the city council.
Civil Contract garnered most votes (36.8 percent) but fell well short of an absolute majority in the city council empowered to elect the mayor. The HKK finished second with almost 20.7 percent of the vote. It managed to install Ghukasian as mayor with the help of the three other opposition contenders that won seats in the council.
Pashinian’s party had already been accused of resorting to politically motivated criminal cases and foul play to reverse its defeats in local polls held in other major urban communities, including Armenia’s third largest city of Vanadzor. The leader of a local opposition bloc, Mamikon Aslanian, was arrested in December 2021 just as he was poised to again become Vanadzor mayor. Aslanian spent two and a half years in prison before being sentenced in January this year to four and a half years’ imprisonment on corruption charges denied by him.