Armen Grigoryan Tipped to Become Armenia’s New FM

“The reason for my decision to resign was to make sure that there are never any suspicions that this ministry could take some steps or agree to some ideas, initiatives going against our statehood and national interests,” he said.

Later it was Grigoryan who accused Ayvazyan of torpedoing the government work on the repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war from Azerbaijan by lying that Yerevan had no minefield maps that it could pass on to the Azerbaijani side.

Ayvazyan’s resignation was followed by the resignations of all four of his deputies. The resignation of one deputy minister, Armen Ghevondyan, was not accepted by the government and he continued to serve not to leave the ministry without the leadership altogether.

Lawmaker Artur Hovannisian, a member of the Civil Contract party, confirmed that Grigoryan is also their candidate for the post of foreign minister. He said that there was a discussion within the party on this issue. “There are difficult processes that we must go through, and, yes, we need people who can make decisions in difficult situations based on the interests of the Republic of Armenia and implement these decisions,” he said.

For the first time since coming to power Pashinyan has made an appointment in the Foreign Ministry, bypassing the diplomatic corps. Acting Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said that “the political appointment is needed for establishing a certain connection between the diplomatic corps and the political leadership in order to remove the differences that have existed to some extent.” “I think that on the whole this is a positive appointment,” Avinyan said.

Grigoryan was one of the few officials who criticized the decision of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) not to support Armenia in its current border standoff with Azerbaijan, advising that the CSTO’s secretary-general show restraint in his public remarks.