YEREVAN (azatutyun.am) – Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan stepped down on May 27 after only six months in office. Ayvazyan gave no reasons for his resignation confirmed by Anna Naghdalyan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. Naghdalyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the ministry will not comment on the move for now.
Ayvazyan appeared to have tendered his resignation immediately after taking part in an emergency meeting of Armenia’s Security Council which discussed mounting tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called for the deployment of international observers along contested portions of the frontier where Armenian and Azerbaijani troops have been facing off against each other for the last two weeks. It was not immediately clear if Ayvazyan agreed with Pashinyan’s proposal.
The Yerevan newspaper Hraparak claimed on May 21 that Ayvazyan has decided to resign because he disagrees with Pashinyan’s efforts to end the border standoff which have been denounced by the Armenian opposition.
Pashinyan appointed Ayvazyan as foreign minister on November 18 as part of a cabinet reshuffle that followed Armenia’s defeat in a war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The 52-year-old career diplomat had previously worked as Armenian ambassador to Mexico and various European countries.
