Chief of presidential staff will not resign

Photo by Photolur

The chief of the Armenian president's staff has dismissed media reports about his resignation.

In a written statement issued by the press service of Armenia's presidential administration, Karen Karapetyan said that those media reports are "absolutely untrue" and "groundless manipulations".

"They are simply groundless manipulations," Karapetyan said in the statement, adding that it is first of all those, who are presenting their wishes for reality that find themselves in an uncomfortable situation due to "such failed attempts".

"To those people I only would like to say not to get sad when they realize how much time and effort they have wasted," said he.

Karen Karapetyan further said that he maintains normal relations with the president, and that the attempts of some people to incite disagreements in the presidential staff are doomed to failure.

Karapetyan's statement comes amid media reports, claiming he is widely ignored by the personnel of the Department of Protocol at the presidential apparatus.

The personnel of that department reportedly refuse to complete the tasks Karapetyan assigns to them. Some of them have, according to media reports, even said that Karapetyan might "hand them to other criminal authorities".

Karen Karapetyan reportedly arranged a meeting between former Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan and an employee of the Department of Protocol, Aram Kandayan, who was later physically assaulted by Beglaryan simply for asking his wife to move to another chair at a concert in Yerevan so that not to be seated immediately next to the president – something mandatory by protocol.