
ArmInfo. Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan responded to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's words, calling him a " nuisance " that "will be corrected over time."
Yesterday in parliament, responding to a question from ruling Civil Contract faction MP Karen Sarukhanyan about the Gyumri mayor's statements "questioning the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia," Pashinyan stated that Ghukasyan "must simply be kicked out of the political and public arena for those who make statements against Armenia's sovereignty. How? By political means, by all means applicable in a democratic country. And I am convinced that this is how it will be."
"I will not stoop to their level and will not respond in a manner commensurate with the word 'kick out.'" But if the Armenian Prime Minister says "he should be kicked out" about the people's choice, a man who was elected mayor six times and a member of parliament twice, I want to tell the Armenian people: "Look who was elected Prime Minister of Armenia," Vardan Ghukasyan said in an interview with journalists.
The mayor of Gyumri wonders: "Don't they have anything better to do?"
"Our country is facing both external and internal problems. What bad did Vardan Ghukasyan say?" "If Russia, the United States, or any other country encroaches on Armenian statehood, they will become my sworn enemy. But now I repeat again: to preserve Armenian statehood, we must be in some kind of union, but not on the principle of turning the country into a province. I said that anyone who speaks out against these words of mine and writes comments for money is a scoundrel, a Turkish subject." "I said exactly that and I don't regret it," Vardan Ghukasyan noted.
The newly elected mayor of Gyumri believes his opponents want Armenia to become a Turkish province. In this spirit, he is convinced, "Erdogans and Aliyevs" have instructed them to get rid of those who oppose this.
As a reminder, on April 16, 2025, at a briefing at City Hall after his election, newly elected opposition mayor Vardan Ghukasyan stated that he favors a Union State of Armenia with Russia, following the example of Belarus. He has expressed this viewpoint repeatedly.