YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — Amid an uproar from his political opponents and media, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan said on Monday, December 23 that he will pay the municipal administration about $20,000 to cover the exorbitant cost of his recent flight to the United States.
Avinyan and eight other city officials traveled to Los Angeles late last month on what they called a working visit. It emerged last week that the trip cost the city at least 26.1 million drams ($66,500). Almost 7.7 million drams ($19,500) of that was spent on Avinyan’s business class ticket.
Hayk Marutyan, a former Yerevan mayor leading the largest opposition group in the city council, exposed the airfare on Wednesday during a live debate with Avinyan hosted by the online broadcaster Factor.am. The revelation drew strong condemnation from other opposition figures, media commentators and Armenia’s leading anticorruption watchdog.
Avinyan on Monday again blamed “irresponsible” officials from the mayor’s office for the expensive purchase and claimed to have found out the price of his air ticket after the trip to the US.
“To be honest, I too was a bit astonished by those figures,” the 35-year-old mayor told a weekly meeting of senior municipality officials.
Avinyan, who is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party, went on to announce that he will use his personal money to fully compensate taxpayers for his air travel expenses. He did not say why he did not do that before the debate with Marutyan and the resulting uproar.
