Yerevan Mayor Reminded of What Happened with his Predecessor

What is your relationship with the head of the Department of Protocol of the President (of the Republic of Armenia)? A reporter with Ekho Moskvy radio (“Echo of Moscow”), Tatiana Felgenhauer, asked this question to Yerevan major Karen Karapetyan (pictured).

Karapetyan: And what does that have to do with anything? (laughs)

Felgenhauer: Well, for the Yerevan mayor this can sometimes be fatal.

Karapetyan: To be honest, I’ve never thought about it this way. We have a very good working relationship. As for relations with the chief of the presidential protocol department having an influence on the Yerevan mayor, I’m not so sure.

Felgenhauer: Well, if we remember your predecessor, then we can conclude that they do have an influence (all laugh).

Karapetyan: To be honest, I don’t quite understand what’s the subtext in your question.

Recall, on Dec. 3, 2010, at a Placido Domingo concert in Yerevan, an incident occurred after which then mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan was forced to resign. Prior to the start of the concert, chief of the presidential Department of Protocol Aram Kandayan asked Beglaryan’s wife, who was sitting in the seat next to the Armenian president, to change her seat, since according to protocol, only the parliamentary speaker or the Catholicos of All-Armenians were to sit in those seats. Beglaryan was informed of the situation and furious, decided an appropriate form of “punishment” would be to physically assault Kandayan the following day.