Marutian was deposed by the city council after falling out with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. He kept a low profile in the following months amid lingering speculation about his plans to regain his position in the next municipal elections due in 2023.
The former TV comedian stoked that speculation on Monday when he posted on Facebook a video ad promoting a monodrama which he will play in the country’s leading theater. The 90-second clip featuring political hints received 22,000 “likes,” a very large number by Armenian standards.
Tickets for the first four performances of the play titled “The Mayor” were sold out within hours, leading Marutian and the theater administration to schedule additional shows. The monodrama will be played for a total of 14 times from September 19 through the middle of November.
“I am immensely touched by such a positive reaction,” Marutian wrote later on Monday.
Three days later, some Armenian media outlets reported that the police department of Yerevan’s Nor Nork district is poised to accuse Marutian of illegally allocating land to a local restaurant in 2019. The police denied those reports.
However, another law-enforcement agency, the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), confirmed them on Friday, saying that it has just received the findings of the police inquiry and will make a statement later on.
The ACC declined to clarify whether Marutian has been questioned by investigators. The ex-mayor could not be reached for comment.
Isabella Abgarian, a former member of Yerevan’s municipal council, believes that the criminal proceedings are aimed at preventing Marutian’s renewed political activities and, in particular, his participation in next year’s mayoral elections.
“After his resignation he stayed silent for a while and, as we could see, no criminal cases were opened against him,” Abgarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But as soon as Hayk Marutian showed some signs of political activity they [the authorities] got worried.”
The authorities, she said, are concerned that the popular entertainer could scuttle their plans to install former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian as Yerevan’s next mayor. The ruling Civil Contract party has already nominated Avinian as its mayoral candidate.
In July, an Armenian government agency asked prosecutors to investigate its allegations of serious financial irregularities committed by Yerevan’s municipal administration during Marutian’s tenure. The prosecutors’ assessment of the allegations is still not known.
In June, several pro-government websites claimed that the municipality embezzled or misused as much as $40 million on Marutian’s watch. The ex-mayor laughed off the allegations.
“Guys -- and also girls -- I have made no decision yet on participating or not participating in the next Yerevan elections,” he wrote on Facebook. “You can breathe a sigh of relief and calm down.”
Marutian himself accused Pashinian’s administration of corruption on December 22 as Yerevan’s Council of Elders ousted him in a vote of no confidence initiated by its pro-government majority.
He claimed that during his three-year tenure he routinely received phone calls from unnamed “various officials” asking for construction permits, land allocations, tax advantages and other privileges for “people close to them.” He did not name any of them, saying only that he rejected all such requests.
