Revazian gave no clear reason for her resignation which she announced on her Facebook page just days after returning to work from maternity leave.
“I have decided to return to the world of business,” she wrote without elaborating.
Revazian suggested that her resignation will give rise to “fake news and gossips.” “I am resigning from office with positive emotions and do not have interpersonal differences with anyone,” she said.
Revazian, 34, was named to run the government agency in 2018 shortly after the “velvet revolution” that brought Nikol Pashinian to power. She lived in Denmark until then. Her family had migrated to the northern European country in the 1990s.
Revazian did not say whether she will stay in Armenia. She could not be reached for comment on Monday.
The government did not immediately appoint a new head of its Civil Aviation Committee. The agency was run by Revazian’s deputy Mihran Khachatrian during her parental leave.
Revazian’s four-year tenure was marred by the European Union’s decision in June 2020 to ban airlines registered in Armenia from carrying out regular flights to EU member states. The EU’s executive European Commission said that they do not meet international safety standards.
The ban sparked bitter recriminations between the Armenian government and its political opponents. The latter accused the government and Revazian in particular of incompetence. Pashinian put the blame on the country’s former leadership.
“It wasn’t [Revazian’s] fault,” said Shahen Petrosian, who had headed the civil aviation authority in the early 1990s. “She was just wrong not to have been consistent enough to sort out what had happened in the past.”
Revazian actively encouraged Western budget airlines to start flying to Armenia. Two such carriers, Ryanair and Wizz Air, launched first-ever flights between Yerevan and several European cities in early 2020 only to end them weeks later due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.