Vartan Ghukasian and his bodyguard were snatched out of his car and taken to a local police station before being released without charge more than two hours later. A spokesman for the Armenian Interior Ministry said they were detained on suspicion of illegal arms possession. The Gyumri police are understood to have not found any such weapons or ammunition.
Ghukasian brushed aside the official explanation. He said that the real purpose of the “disgraceful” police actions was to intimidate and force him not to stand in the election slated for March 30.
“Nikol, who has been propagating ‘democracy,’ wants to break people with such things,” he told journalists. “But they must know that we will fight till the end. Till the end!”
“I won’t be intimidated … Stay away from me,” he added, appealing to the country’s leadership.
Ghukasian had visible cuts on his face and head after his release. His bodyguard suffered more serious injuries and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. The controversial ex-mayor claimed that masked police officers toppled them to the ground and “dragged us like dogs.”
The detentions were also condemned as politically motivated by two other opposition candidates for Gyumri mayor. But Knarik Harutiunian, a leader of the ruling Civil Contract party’s Gyumri chapter, dismissed Ghukasian’s claims as “laughable.” Observers noted, meanwhile, that local Civil Contract activists were the first to spread news of Ghukasian’s arrest on social media.
Voters in Armenia’s second largest city will go to the polls to elect a new municipal council that will in turn pick the mayor. Ghukasian will top the Armenian Communist Party’s list of election candidates. He is expected to be one of Civil Contract’s main challengers.
Gyumri has effectively had no municipal administration since last October’s mysterious resignations of its Mayor Vardges Samsonian, his deputies and city council members representing a local political bloc at odds with Pashinian’s government. The resignations followed criminal charges brought against the bloc’s unofficial leader and another ex-mayor, businessman Samvel Balasanian. The latter now reportedly lives in the United States.
The government appointed the ruling party’s mayoral candidate, Sarik Minasian, as interim mayor in December. Opposition groups and some media outlets have since accused Minasian of illegally using his government levers to boost his electoral chances. Pashinian’s political allies deny this.
Ghukasian, 64, was dogged by scandals and controversies when he ran the city from 1999 to 2012. Critics accused him of leading a clan that controlled much of the local economy. He also faced accusations of violent conduct which he always denied. Ghukasian narrowly survived an apparent assassination attempt in 2007 when unknown gunmen opened fire on his motorcade, seriously wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.
The ex-mayor welcomed the “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power in 2018. But he openly supported former President Robert Kocharian and his opposition Hayastan alliance in Armenia’s last parliamentary elections held in 2021.