A fugitive video blogger who helped Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan install a new mayor of Yerevan in October has accused the Armenian government of breaking up his own party that did unexpectedly well in municipal elections.
Vartan Ghukasian, who is wanted by Armenian law-enforcement authorities, is a former police officer who emigrated to the United States about a decade ago. He has since attracted large audiences with his hard-hitting and opinionated comments on political developments in Armenia. He has been notorious for using profanities in his videos posted on YouTube.
About a year ago, law-enforcement authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ghukasian and arrested his associates in Armenia on charges of blackmail, extortion and fraud strongly denied by them. The detainees include Artak Galstian, the nominal head of a small party called Public Voice.
The blogger nicknamed Dog has been widely regarded as the party’s de facto leader until now. His popularity was instrumental in the 10 percent of the vote won by Public Voice in the September 2023 elections.
That performance put Public Voice in a position to effectively determine the choice of the Yerevan mayor by the newly elected city council. Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party and another group allied to Pashinyan fell short of a majority in the council.
Public Voice and the two other election contenders in opposition to Pashinyan won a combined majority of council seats. However, Ghukasian’s party refused back potential opposition candidates for the post of mayor. It also blocked an opposition attempt to force a repeat election.
Ghukasian subsequently fell out most senior members of Public Voice loyal to Galstian. In a statement issued earlier this week, the party said that it has terminated the blogger’s membership because he holds Russian citizenship.
Ghukasian rejected the decision as illegal and scheduled a “real” congress of the party for the end of this month. He argued that Galstian, who remains in detention, also held a Russian passport when he registered the party a few years ago.
Ghukasian went on to allege that Pashinyan’s government ordered Galstian to “blow up” Public Voice and neutralize him ahead of snap general elections which he said will be held in Armenia soon.
Source: Azatutyun.am
