A Republican with the coat of arms

07/04/2006

In our previous edition, we stated that the Minister of Ecology Vartan Ayvazyan is currently at the “Nairi” hospital due to inflammation of the lungs. “168 Hours” found out from head of the public relations department of the ministry Artsrun Pepanyan that the minister is already back to work. However, Pepanyan is not sure that Ayvazyan has totally recovered. According to him, Ayvazyan preferred to come to work because he didn’t even have any time for himself in the hospital-he received 50 visitors and answered calls from the ministry. The strange thing though, is that some people had seen the minister in some cafes in Yerevan. In response to the comment as to the news in the press stating that the minister was absent for a while due to the disagreements between him and Andranik Margaryan, Mr. Pepanyan said:

“So, do you want to know if he was transferred to the hospital because of the disagreements? As far as I know, the minister gets medical treatment from time to time. This is not the first time.”

As for the rumors that V. Ayvazyan plans on joining the “Prosperous Armenia” political party, which A. Markaryan is not in favor of, A. Pepanyan said that V. Ayvazyan is a member of the Republican Party. Pepanyan thinks so because he sees that Ayvazyan still has the coat of arms.