The community comprises the town of Spitak and nearby villages, including Karadzor where the 35-year-old Gagik Eminian lives with his family. Eminian said he visited the local government building to complain to the mayor, Kajayr Nikoghosian, about a lack of water of supply to his home. He said Nikoghosian responded by kicking and punching him.
“I barely escaped to my car to avoid being killed,” Eminian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Although he lodged a complaint to local police, Armenia’s Investigative Committee did not launch a formal inquiry into the alleged incident as of Monday.
Nikoghosian refused to comment on the allegations when contacted by phone, saying that he is too busy to talk. But Hranush Rostomian, the Karadzor administration chief subordinate to him, categorically denied them, branding Eminian a “charlatan” and dismissing his grievances as baseless.
“The mayor is such a reserved, educated, and kind man,” she said.
Nikoghosian is no stranger to scandals. Last year, his son Gor received a suspended one-year prison sentence for beating up, together with other men, the husband of another female village chief who reportedly defied the mayor’s orders to resign. Nikoghosian Jr. became the chief of the local branch of the national postal service after the assault. He still holds that position.
Government officials affiliated with and/or installed by Civil Contract are periodically accused of violent conduct by their alleged victims or media. Last month, a woman fired from Armenia’s State Committee for Real Estate Cadaster accused the head of the government agency, Suren Tovmasian, of organizing a brutal attack on her husband. Tovmasian denied any involvement in the violence.
Earlier in September, an Armenian journalist, Hakob Karapetian, was assaulted by a masked man after being allegedly insulted and threatened by a senior official from the Yerevan mayor’s office. The official insisted that he was not behind the attack.
Earlier this year, the heads of two administrative districts of Yerevan lost their jobs after being prosecuted on assault charges.