Clean Up in Vanadzor: Mayor says garbage in the town forced him to fire his ally

The standoff between two officials in Vanadzor has been in the center of public attention for several months but now it is the court to deicide whose arguments are more persuasive.

Lyova Karapetyan who was fired last November from the position of the department head for utility services and town improvements of Vanadzor has applied to the Vanadzor court to restore his position. He says he was dismissed illegally and blames the municipality.
But the officials from the municipality want Karapetyan first to explain why the city is stuffed with garbage- one of the main tasks his organization was supposed to cope with and as they state the only reason why he was fired.
Karapetyan was appointed the head of the department by the Mayor of Vanadzor Samvel Darbinyan in 2003. Darbinyan (a Republican party member) who was elected mayor in 1999 (and re-elected in 2003) brought to his municipality administration new people, known as mayor’s allies, relatives or fellow countrymen.
Karapetyan was one of them and was known in political circles as the mayor’s close ally. For many in Vanadzor it explains why he managed in several years to build a two-storied private mansion in the center of the town adjacent to the municipality building.
The issue of waste removal has always been a subject of concern in Vanadzor, with officials claiming there is lack of means to keep the city constantly clean. With Karapetyan’s appointment the issue of waste removal in the town was becoming even worse especially in summer. The waste was removed neither from the suburban nor from the central districts for days.
“The situation in the town was tense. From summer to autumn either waste removal or sanitary cleaning of the districts were not done properly,” says Gagik Simonyan, the municipality administration staff secretary.
“The mayor of Vanadzor could not endure the situation any more,” Simonyan says. “Karapetyan’s dismissal is not personal in nature at all. There were no personal problems between him and the mayor.”
Still many in Vanadzor do not believe that waste removal issues caused the disfavor of the mayor.
Human rights activist Artur Sakunts believes that the men disagreed over more serious issues.
“Chances of gaining spheres of influence and recourses are so limited that they have started grabbing them from each other.”
Arshaluis Zurabyan, the 38 year old resident of Vanadzor says she does not know exactly what Krapetyan was fired for, but he is sure that at least it wasn’t because of the poor performance of duties.
“The issue of garbage is in terrible condition,” she says, “and I don not think that something could be changed for the better.”
Meanwhile to substantiate Karapetyan’s dismissal the mayor of Vanadzor issued a decision in November to form a task group to hold an inner investigation over Karapetyan’s activities.
The group has studied the situation and proved that Karapetyan had not supervised the process of waste removal in the town properly. The group also concluded that the three sanitary cleaning organizations under utility supervision which were allocated 76 million drams from the budget (1,655) did not provide proper waste removal services to the town.
The allied relations between officials in Vanadzor make it hard to get the details of the investigation group.
Victor Darbinyan, a group member, avoided commenting on the work of a man who is his children’s the godfather. Some other members of the task group also refused to voice any comment about their ex- colleague’s activities.
Karapetyan protests also the decision on inner investigation as well as the preceding disciplinary penalty.
Karapetyan intends to prove that several provisions of the law on Community Service have been broken. His lawyer Karen Tumanyan mentions his defendant has not been informed about any disciplinary penalty in April this year by the municipality.
“He was informed about it only in November when the inner investigation was underway,” the lawyer says.”
Now Karapetyan is out of the republic and has entrusted the defense of his interests to a lawyer, who believes that Karapetyan’s dismissal is not tied up with waste removal.
“Vanadzor has problems more acute than waste removal. But those responsible for them are not ousted,” says the lawyer.
Meanwhile the municipality in Vanadzor has decided to allocate more means for the waste utilities. Artur Sukiasyan, head of the financial department of the municipality, says next year another 0,000 will be allocated for improving waste removal service.
  By Naira Bulghadaryan
ArmeniaNow Vanadzor reporter