Romanos Petrosyan Punishes Arthur Harutyunyan (Palach), Strips Him of Transport Line

The former Minister of Environment and former Governor of Kotayk, Romanos Petrosyan, has penalized businessman Arthur Harutyunyan, known as Palach, due to post-election tensions. As a result, Harutyunyan has lost his business and has been deprived of serving the Abovyan-Yerevan transport line, which was operated by the 'King de Luxe' company with buses numbered 261.

We previously reported that following local self-government elections in Abovyan and the defeat of the ruling Civil Contract party (CP), tensions escalated between the two. Palach, who aspired to become the mayor of Abovyan, blamed Petrosyan for his failure, claiming that the nomination of a candidate from the past was a mistake and that there were attempts to establish feudal practices in the region.

In retaliation, Romanos decided to punish him. Through his friend, Minister of Territorial Administration Gnel Sanosyan, a competition was announced for the transport line number 261, with Palach not being informed. The contest was won by a company belonging to Gagik Tsarukyan.

It is noteworthy that the line is not operational yet because the winning company still needs to acquire new buses. Meanwhile, in 2020, Romanos had convinced Palach to invest, assuring him that the route would be granted to him; he had purchased buses worth 650,000 euros at that time.

The Ministry of Territorial Administration has stated that they can service the line until the winning company purchases buses, but Palach did not agree, and since January 17, bus number 261 is no longer in operation. Palach has since left Armenia.