{"id":139218,"date":"2011-11-04T10:40:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T06:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=139218"},"modified":"2011-11-04T10:41:37","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T06:41:37","slug":"top-presidential-aide-mikael-minasyan-resigns-given-new-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/11\/04\/top-presidential-aide-mikael-minasyan-resigns-given-new-role.html","title":{"rendered":"Top Presidential Aide Mikael Minasyan Resigns, Given New Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikael Minasyan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan\u2019s influential son-in-law and reputedly closest confidante, said he will take a leading role in the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) after being unexpectedly dismissed as deputy chief of the presidential staff late on Thursday, RFE\/RL’s Armenian service<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> reports.<\/p>\n

Sargsyan\u2019s office said Minasyan was relieved of his duties at his own request but gave no further details.<\/p>\n

The move came on the heels of a series of high-level personnel changes within Armenia\u2019s political leadership, including the resignation of parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamyan. They are widely seen as being part of Sargsyan\u2019s efforts to strengthen his hold on power ahead of parliamentary elections due in May 2012.<\/p>\n

Abrahamyan is expected to formally take over as the HHK\u2019s election campaign manager later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to help Hovik Abrahamyan properly prepare the forthcoming elections and think that is a priority today,\u201d Minasyan told News.am<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> immediately after the announcement of the presidential decree.<\/p>\n

Abrahamyan announced his decision to step down as speaker on Wednesday amid mounting speculation that Sargsyan is keen to ward off a potential challenge to his rule from his predecessor Robert Kocharian. The outgoing speaker is thought to have close ties with Gagik Tsarukyan, a Kocharian-linked businessman leading Armenia\u2019s second most important governing party.<\/p>\n

Both Abrahamyan and other senior HHK figures have denied any connection between the resignation and Kocharian\u2019s possible return to the political arena.<\/p>\n

Minasyan claimed that the HHK is already starting to prepare for the parliamentary polls because Sargsyan is intent on holding \u201cthe best elections\u201d in terms of their freedom and fairness. \u201cWe are going to not only ensure the presidential party\u2019s victory in the forthcoming elections but also foster the kind of elections from which Armenia will emerge stronger and confidently looking to the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll necessary conditions for that are now in place. I think that these elections will mark a qualitative revolution for our country and each of us,\u201d added Minasyan.<\/p>\n

Sargsyan\u2019s and his party\u2019s victories in the last national elections were marred by opposition allegations of vote rigging. Accordingly, Armenia\u2019s leading opposition forces dismiss their pledges to ensure that the next polls will be more democratic.<\/p>\n

Minasyan also refused to speculate on whether more dismissals or resignations should be expected in the coming days. \u201cOnly one person knows the answer to such questions \u2014 the president of the republic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikael Minasyan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan\u2019s influential son-in-law and reputedly closest confidante, said he will take a leading role in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[33914,65942,13127,13317],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}