Armenian media comments on Pashinyan's unusual appointments within own political party

Although broad segments of the population seem perplexed by Nikol Pashinyan’s appointment of two new vice-chairmen to his “Civil Contract” (CC) political party, its veteran members are not surprised.

Caliber.Az reports on this citing the Yerevan-based Graparak publication, according to whom he chose two politicians with an unusual background in regard to his own politics, namely Gevork Papoyan, a former member of the national-conservatist "Republican Party of Armenia" which is led by Serzh Sargsyan, the former President of the Republic, and Vahagn Aleksanyan, a former member of the "Prosperous Armenia Party", which, while official records state that it has been founded by a businessman, rumours persist that another Armenian former President, Robert Kocharyan, plays the key role in the party leadership.

“After falsifying the CC board election results, Pashinyan was expected to punish not only the alleged organizer of the falsifications, Suren Papikian and his supporters, but also more or less independent persons, so that the latter would not consider 'developing' and repeating Papikian’s initiative of making a claim to the position of prime minister and bring his own people onto the board.

This is because neither Araik Harutyunyan would have been appointed as a deputy leader of the ‘Civil Contract’ party nor one of the founders of Armen Pambukhchian’s party, but rather obedient minions. So Pashinyan sent a message to the team that there was only room for wholehearted henchmen next to him.

Arusyak Manavazyan, a member of parliament from the CC was appointed as the Head of the Apparatus, who at one time was an accountant at the 'Haykakan Zhamanak' newspaper, later chief accountant and then the director of the GNKO firm overlooking government mansions and has proven her loyalty over the years to Pashinyan and his wife”, the publication wrote.