A session of the council descended into chaos as several of its members representing the ruling Civil Contract party and the opposition Mayr Hayastan bloc brawled after trading fraud accusations stemming from Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections.
The pro-government councilors were joined by a larger number of other men, apparently municipality officials, before the brawl continued in an adjacent hallway. Footage circulated by multiple media outlets showed Avet Babayan, the acting head of the municipality’s department on public order, punching Mar Hayastan’s Grigor Iskandarian in Mayor Tigran Avinian’s presence.
Meanwhile, several other men ganged up on Mayr Hayastan’s Sargis Ter-Yesayan. Moments later, he was knocked to the ground by Arsen Makventsian, the head of a municipal department on sports and youth affairs. Ter-Yesayan was left with bruises on his face and received medical assistance in hospital later in the day.
Hospital doctors alerted the Armenian police about his injuries before another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, announced a formal criminal inquiry into the violence. It did not charge or even interrogate anyone as of Wednesday evening.
The violent department heads and other officials were not fired or censured either, with Avinian and his deputy Armen Pambukhchian putting the blame on the opposition councilors.
“Your skin will be peeled off,” the Yerevan mayor shouted right after the incident, referring to opposition leaders accused by him of buying votes in the parliamentary elections.
Ter-Yesayan countered that the ruling party itself provoked the violence in a bid to bully the opposition minority in the council. He claimed that many of the violent officials work for the municipal department on public order.
Babayan, the acting department head, was accused of organizing a violent assault on an opposition-linked journalist less than a year ago. The journalist, Hakob Karapetian, was beaten up by a masked man two weeks after criticizing the municipality on social media. He said Babayan responded to the criticism with verbal abuse and threats of violence.
Avinian issued a “stern reprimand” to Babayan and sent him on leave at the time. The official returned to work a few weeks later.