Sarik Minasyan appointed acting mayor of Gyumri, David Arushanyan appointed Shirak governor 

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced  that he had appointed Sarik Minasyan as acting head of the Gyumri community, and former member of  parliament of the ruling Civil Contract faction David Arushanyan will be appointed governor of the Shirak  region.

<In the presence of all our candidates, I appointed Sarik Minasyan as acting head of the Gyumri  community.

I will nominate David Arushanyan (who wrote a statement of resignation on December 11, ed.) for the post  of governor of Shirak>, the prime minister wrote on his Facebook account.

Gyumri has been without a leader since October 28. The authorities blamed the party that gave up power for the management crisis. The Balasanyan bloc has not yet explained the reason for its resignation.  According to media reports, the reason is the initiation of a criminal case against former mayor Samvel  Balasanyan and his associates. They are accused of illegally appropriating land adjacent to the historic  "Black Fortress".

On November 27, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his intention to hold an intra-party vote  (primary) to elect the acting mayor of Gyumri - this is the first such process in the history of the country.  The voting took place on December 8-10 among members or associates of the Civil Contract party. Then, a  random vote was held among the residents of Gyumri. In addition to the head of the Gyumri department of  the United Social Service Sarik Minasyan, six more self-nominated candidates participated in the primaries  - former adviser to the governor of Shirak Levon Ananyan, deputies of the National Assembly from the  ruling Civil Contract (CC) party David Arushanyan and Karen Sarukhanyan, member of the Council of  Elders from the CC Shavarsh Aramyan, former vice-mayor of Gyumri Vahagn Mkrtchyan, Gyumri  coordinator of the Youth Union of the CC Emma Barseghyan. Sarik Minasyan received the largest number  of votes. Minasyan is non-partisan. In 2018, he was elected as a member of the Armenian Parliament on the  list of the Enlightened Armenia party.

Shirak Governor Mushegh Muradyan, whom Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rebuked at a cabinet meeting  on December 5 for opening a class named after an active high-ranking military officer in a rural school, submitted a resignation letter on December 12.