The mayor of Gyumri, Armenia and 13 council members have submitted their resignations after the authorities accused the former mayor, Samvel Balasanyan, who is affiliated with their faction, of abusing his office.

Mayor Vardges Samsonyan and the council members, who call themselves the Balasanyan Alliance, submitted their resignation applications on Monday, after rumours of this intention began circulating in the media last week.

The alliance has not yet publicly commented on their decision.

The move came weeks after criminal charges were brought against the former mayor of Gyumri, Samvel Balasanyan, his son, and their associates. They are all involved in a criminal case regarding the fraudulent expropriation of land adjacent to  Gyumri’s 19th century historical fortress.  

On 11 October, Balasanyan’s son, Khachatur Balasanyan, was arrested at Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan before departing to visit his father, who is currently undergoing treatment in the US. Khachatur Balasanyan was later placed under house arrest with a bail of ֏70 million ($180,000).

Three of the former mayor’s associates, including the current and deputy mayors of Gyumri, were also arrested as part of the same criminal case. 

Less than a week later, the Investigative Committee confirmed that a decision was made to arrest the former mayor as well. 

The ruling party has denied that the criminal case has a political context, but Civilnet has referred to speculation in the media, suggesting that the Balasanyan Alliance’s resignations were part of a plan by the ruling Civil Contract party to hold snap elections to ‘hand over ’ the governance of Gyumri to its own party.

Last week, Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan told RFE/RL that the government was preparing for a special election in Gyumri, and had already chosen their candidate.

The crisis between the Balasanyan Alliance and the Civil Contract party started in December 2023, when Civil Contract announced the termination of a cooperation memorandum signed in 2021 on the joint administration of Gyumri. 

Following the termination of the contract, Gyumri’s deputy mayors resigned. The ruling party claimed that the motive behind their resignations was that Gyumri was ‘under shadow management’, but did not clarify who specifically they meant.