Communist Party Faction in Gyumri Council of Elders accuses Pashinyan of politically persecuting mayor

The Armenian Communist Party faction in the Gyumri Council of Elders has accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of directing law enforcement agencies to initiate political persecution against the city’s opposition mayor, Vardan Ghukasyan.

According to the communists’ statement, the prime minister’s threats and remarks about intensifying political persecution through “political instruments” during a government Q&A session in parliament served as a direct order to law enforcement.

The new wave of repression, they claim, is linked to Ghukasyan’s stance in favor of strengthening ties with Russia rather than with “genocidal Turkey and Azerbaijan.” Pashinyan’s threats from the parliamentary podium are aimed at “the moral and physical destruction of freedom of speech and dissent,” the faction’s statement reads.