A spokesman for state prosecutors told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Arsen Titanian, who has run the village of Odzun since 2008, is suspected of failing to declare all of his assets. He declined to give further details, saying that the case is investigated by another law-enforcement agency, the Anti-Corruption Committee.
The committee did not comment on the investigation on Thursday. It was not clear whether it will press charges against Titanian.
Titanian, 52, is a current or former member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party. He openly supported the main opposition Hayastan bloc led by another ex-president, Robert Kocharian, during parliamentary elections held in June 2021.
Just days after the elections, Titanian claimed to have been beaten up inside the provincial administration building in Lori’s capital Vanadzor. He said he was assaulted by about a dozen other men moments after rejecting Lori Governor Aram Khachatrian’s demands to resign.
The Anti-Corruption Committee opened a criminal case but never charged anyone in connection with the alleged incident. It stopped the probe two months later, citing a lack of incriminating evidence.
Khachatrian, who is affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, admitted summoning Titanian to his office but denied demanding his resignation or ordering his beating.
During the parliamentary race Pashinian pledged to wage “political vendettas” against local government officials supporting the opposition. Shortly after his party’s victory in the snap elections, Armenian media outlets reported that several provincial governors, including Khachatrian, are pressuring such officials to resign.
“These people must resign and again participate in [local] elections to see whether or not people trust them,” the Lori governor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the wake of the polls.
The elected heads of five Lori communities stepped down in the following weeks. Odzun’s Titanian was not among them. He made clear at the time that he intends to complete his fourth term in office in 2022.
With a population of more than 5,000, Odzun is one of the country’s largest rural communities. It is now being merged with the nearby towns of Alaverdi and Akhtala into a single community in accordance with a controversial government bill approved by the Armenian parliament earlier this year.
The new, consolidated community is due to elect this fall a local council that will in turn pick its chief executive. It is not clear whether the Odzun mayor planned to participate in the ballot before his arrest.