Yerevan mayor resigns over scandal

Yerevan's Mayor Gagik Beglaryan has submitted his resignation today, according to a press release by Yerevan's Municipality.

It comes after widespread reports saying that Gagik Beglaryan had kidnapped and severely beaten Aram Kandayan, an employee of the Department of Protocol of the Armenian presidential office.

Earlier, Armen Arzumanyan, the spokesperson for the president, had confirmed the incident.

"Yes, unfortunately, there has been such incident. Of course, the press has been exaggerative in its description of the events. There has been no kidnapping, nor been any beating. There has, however, been such an incident," Arzumanyan had told Tert.am.

According to some reports in the Armenian press the incident between Gagik Beglaryan had Aram Kandayan had sparked after the latter had asked Beglaryan's wife to move to another place at the concert by Placido Domingo in Yerevan's Karen Demirchyan Complex last week, so that not to be sitting immediately next to the president.

According to protocol procedures, only two persons are allowed to sit next to the president - the Chairman of Armenia's National Assembly and the Armenian Catholicos.