Minister of Education Under Fire for His Stance of his Deputy Criticized for Nepotism  

Almost a month ago, a public outcry erupted over Smbat Gogyan’s resignation from his post as head of the Higher Qualification Committee. In his resignation statement and later in press interviews, Gogyan contended that his fight against plagiarism has failed as academic officials he accuses of plagiarism continue holding their positions thanks to nepotism coming from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. He specified that Yerevan State University of Economics Rector, Diana Galoyan was under the patronage of Deputy Education Minister Grisha Tamrazyan. As a mathematician and a person of high integrity, Gogyan enjoys a strong public support.

Minister of Education Arayik Harutyunyan reacted to this situation only 11 days later with sarcastic Facebook remarks and a controversial statement. He said, that the situation begs a legal resolution and he had turned to law enforcement bodies to investigate whether there is evidence of criminal offense and if not, then there is a count of false testimony (a criminal charge under which Gogyan might fall). Around May 20, Gogyan was invited to the National Security Service of Armenia and gave explanations. Unlike Minister of Education, Prime Minister Pashinyan invited Gogyan to his office for clarifications. Gogyan’s resignation letter is not signed yet and he continues his tenure.

Now, a group of students have issued an open letter to Minister of Education demanding dismissal of Rector Diana Galoyan and reaffirming again that she enjoys nepotism from Deputy Minister Grisha Tamrazyan.

The students express their surprise that the Minister does not take action and instead resorts to law enforcement. “Mr. Minister, what will you do, if it turns out that the deputy minister does not know half of the alphabet, will you again turn to law enforcement to check it?”

The student group points out that nepotism is not a criminal offense under the Criminal Code, therefore his earlier remarks that if there are elements of criminal offense, then law enforcement bodies will deal with it, make no sense in this situation.

The students also point out that the Minister’s inaction on the matter has led to the action of the National Assembly where a Committee hearing was organized involving Gogyan and Deputy Minister Tamrazyan, and even the action of Nikol Pashinyan, who has not yet signed Gogyan’s resignation and invited him to a meeting.