Has Marutyan left the Civil Contract Party? The contradictory statements of the party

After the war in 2020, the press regularly reported that the mayor of Yerevan, Hayk Marutyan, had severed ties with the Civil Contract Party and had applied to leave the party․

Rumors escalated after the 2021 snap parliamentary elections, when Arayik Harutyunyan, the then Prime Minister’s chief adviser, criticized Marutyan։

“I am very sorry that Mr. Marutyan adopted such an attitude before the elections and, as a mayor nominated by the Civil Contract Party and My Step Alliance, did not openly and publicly support the Civil Contract Party during the pre-election period. I am sorry for that, because the votes with which Mr. Marutyan became the mayor of Yerevan mostly belong to the force that will now form the government for the second time.”

In response to Harutyunyan’s statement, the mayor’s spokesperson stated that Marutyan had no intention to resign.

On December 16, the “My Step” faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders officially announced about the intention to initiate a motion of no confidence against Mayor Hayk Marutyan. The statement, among other reasons, also mentions that “Hayk Marutyan left the Civil Contract Party and the My Step Alliance in December 2020.

However, on January 27, 2021, Vahagn Aleksanyan, the then Public Relations Coordinator of the Civil Contract Party mentioned in comment to Armenpress that “there is only one procedure for leaving the Civil Contract Party. You have to write an application and submit it to the office. “Nothing of a kind was done. We did not receive any application, and, hence, the information is wrong”.

Thus, the assertion of the “My Step” faction that Marutyan left the Civil Contract Party in December 2020 contradicts the explanation given by the representative of the same party in January 2021.

P.S. In order to reveal the circumstances and date of Hayk Marutyan leaving the Civil Contract Party, we sent an inquiry to the party. After the the article was published, we received a written response from the party, which states that the Civil Contract Party board has approved Hayk Marutyan’s application to leave the party and Marutyan has not been a member of the party since December 2020.

Mher Taroyan