Law enforcement authorities have initiated a corruption investigation into the municipal administration of Kapan, over two months after the town’s mayor, Gevorg Parsyan, welcomed Archbishop Bagrat Galstyan, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, to the southeastern Armenian town.
In late June, Archbishop Galstyan visited Kapan and other areas in Armenia’s Syunik province, following over a month of anti-government protests he led in Yerevan. During his visit, he was warmly received by Parsyan, a pro-opposition figure whose alignment with the archbishop has raised eyebrows in the political arena.
Parsyan suggested on Wednesday that this political stance might be the reason investigators recently searched his office, seizing documents related to public procurements managed by the local government.
Investigators are focusing on construction contracts awarded to a local company owned by Parsyan’s father. They are also looking into a separate case involving Norogshin, a company established in 1998.
The Armenian Investigative Committee has not disclosed any specifics about the investigation, and no one has been charged thus far, raising concerns about the impartiality of the inquiry.
Parsyan denied using his position to influence the awarding of contracts to Norogshin, asserting that there was no conflict of interest.
“Many construction companies participate in procurement processes here,” he said. “The Kapan municipality has contracts with numerous firms, including Norogshin.”
According to Armenian law, there is no restriction preventing businesses related to mayors from bidding for local contracts. The only rule is that mayors cannot serve on the committees that select the winning bids.
Parsyan emphasized that he has never been part of Kapan’s procurement commission and claimed that none of its decisions were influenced by him.
Parsyan, 38, has been Kapan’s mayor since 2018. Following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, he was one of five Syunik regional leaders who called for Pashinyan’s resignation. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, Parsyan backed the opposition bloc led by former President Robert Kocharyan. Unlike the other four mayors, Parsyan was not prosecuted after the elections, which were won by Pashinyan’s party.
Of the four indicted Syunik mayors, only Arush Arushanyan of Goris remains in office. Earlier this month, Arushanyan was sentenced to 20 months in prison for defying a previous court order barring him from holding public office for five years. He remains free pending appeals, but the continued legal troubles of opposition figures suggest a concerning trend in the political landscape.
