Lecturer accuses Yerevan State University of firing staff over opposition protests

A lecturer at the Yerevan State University (YSU) has accused the university of firing him and others for participating in opposition protests.

On Monday, Abraham Gasparyan, a lecturer at the university’s International Relations faculty, said YSU had fired him over his political stances calling his dismissal ‘baseless, ignorant, and undignified’. 

Gasparyan, who also hosts a show on opposition-leaning ABC Media, claimed that around ten of his colleagues had been fired for similar reasons and vowed to challenge the decision.

It came a day after Menua Soghomonyan, a lecturer at the same faculty at YSU, said the university had refused to renew his contract, calling the decision ‘hasty’ and adding that he would not ‘tolerate the injustice’.

YSU dismissed the accusations, with a spokesperson telling factor.am that the university had not dismissed them but that their contracts were simply not extended for ‘various reasons’.

The spokesperson denied that the two were let go because of their participation in the anti-government Tavush for the Motherland protests, insisting that a number of other professors who took part in the protests remained in place.

Tavush for the Motherland first emerged as a grassroots movement in the north-eastern Tavush Province to protest the perceived security threat to several villages close to the newly delimitated border with Azerbaijan.

It later morphed into a wider anti-government movement, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation. In May, the movement’s leader, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan announced he was suspending his priesthood in order to be able to run for prime minister.

Armenian authorities have previously been accused of retaliating against individuals for taking part in Galstanyan’s protests.

In June,  Armenia’s Investigative Committee raided the head office of a major Armenian taxi company, days after its founder called on people to join the Tavush for the Motherland protests in Yerevan.

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