×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

Mayor in Armenia quits after punch-up over concert

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 9 December 2010 10:11 GMT

* President's office says behaviour "intolerable"

* Row stems from seating at Placido Domingo concert

By Hasmik Mkrtchyan

YEREVAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The powerful mayor of the Armenian capital Yerevan resigned late on Wednesday after fighting with an aide to President Serzh Sarksyan over seating at a concert by Spanish tenor Placido Domingo.

Local media said mayor Gagik Beglaryan beat up presidential protocol aide Aram Kandayan the day after the Dec. 3 concert, because he had asked the mayor's wife to change seats after she sat next to the president.

A brief statement on the mayoral website confirmed Beglaryan, a senior member of Armenia's ruling Republican Party, had resigned from the top job in Yerevan, home to over a third of Armenia's 3.2 million people. It gave no reason.

A spokesman for Sarksyan declined to give details of the incident, but told Reuters: "The president of Armenia has repeatedly stated that such behaviour is unacceptable and intolerable, particularly in the case of public officials."

Allegations of political violence, including attacks on opposition activists, continue to undermine the former Soviet republic's boast that it is building a European-style democracy in the volatile South Caucasus.

In 2002, a bodyguard of then President Robert Kocharyan was convicted of manslaughter over the killing of a man in a Yerevan jazz club where Kocharyan was entertaining French singer Charles Aznavour in September 2001.

The man had tried to approach the president's party. He was later found dead in the bar toilet.

(Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Paul Taylor)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->