Armenia Now reports that the appointment of Armen Gevorgyan to the position of Chief of Staff of the Armenian President’s Office is illegal. Ruben Torosyan, Chairman of the Supreme Council Deputies Club, says that 60 percent of all government officials have been illegally appointed to their positions because they have failed to serve in the Armenian military. Nice to know they’re all serving their country well.

Torosyan says Gevorgyan is far from alone in missing his army service. He has established that Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan, and 10 government ministers, including Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, Justice Minister David Harutyunyan, and Minister of Agriculture David Lokyan, also did not serve in the army.

Although some of these men would be too old to have done their military service in Armenia’s army, the army of the independent republic is the legal successor of the Soviet military. Reservists and men liable for conscription to the Soviet army automatically became reservists and conscripts of the army of independent Armenia. Service in the Soviet army is regarded as military service for the purposes of Armenia’s law.

Incidently, Gevorgyan is better known to most people here as Armenchik and is believed to have extensive commercial stakes in the media here which explains why most TV outlets broadcast news that can generally only be described as propaganda. For the past few years he can always be seen by the President’s side. The excellent Armenian Deck of 52 has more.

Gevorgian has worked for Kocharian ever since the latter’s appointment in 1997 as prime minister of Armenia, becoming a key member of his inner circle. The 32-year-old has grown particularly influential in the last few years, reportedly wielding more power than Tumanian. In particular, he is thought to be personally overseeing the news coverage of Armenia’s main television stations loyal to Kocharian. He will also assume Tumanian’s task of overseeing implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects financed by the Lincy Foundation of Armenian-American billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

In addition, Gevorgian is reputed to have developed considerable business interests, with newspaper reports regularly linking him large-scale redevelopment projects in Yerevan. He could not be immediately reached for comment as his office did not return phone calls.

No wonder that the green areas of Yerevan have shrunk to such an extent that the capital faces the danger of desertification while corruption sky rockets and the rule of law plummets some more.