Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan holds first cabinet meeting with all government appointees
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—After completing the formation of his government, Armenia’s new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed his pledges to carry out sweeping reforms and push for fresh parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The three deputy prime ministers and 17 ministers handpicked by Pashinyan were formally appointed by President Armen Sarkissian on Friday and Saturday. Four of them held senior positions in the country’s previous government that was swept from power by nationwide massive protests led by Pashinyan.
The new cabinet includes experienced technocrats, young Pashinyan associates and other political appointees representing the three minority factions in the Armenian parliament that helped to install the 42-year-old protest leader as prime minister on May 8.
Businessman Gagik Tsarukyan’s alliance, the second largest parliamentary force, nominated Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and the ministers of energy, transport and communications, emergency situations, and sports and youth affairs. Grigoryan is a 46-year-old banker.
Pashinyan also reached a de facto power-sharing deal with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which was allied to former President and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian until his resignation on April 23.
Dashnaktsutyun will be represented in the new government by Minister for Economic Development Artsvik Minasyan and Agriculture Minister Artur Khachatryan. Minasyan served as environment minister while Khachatryan was the governor of the northwestern Shirak province until this month.
The two other deputy prime ministers, Ararat Mirzoyan and Tigran Avinyan, are senior members of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. Avinyan, 29, is apparently the youngest vice-premier in Armenia’s history.
Two other Civil Contract figures, Arayik Harutiunyan and Suren Papikian, were appointed as ministers of education and local government respectively.
Pashinyan also gave two ministerial portfolios to top representatives of the Hanrapetutyun (Republic) and Bright Armenian parties making up, together with Civil Contract, the Yelk alliance. Hanrapetutyun’s Artak Zeynalyan was named justice minister while Bright Armenia’s Mane Tandilyan will manage the Armenian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
Three other other, more important cabinet posts were given to non-partisan figures. One of them, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s ambassador to the United Nations until now, will serve as foreign minister. The 52-year-old career diplomat was the country’s deputy foreign minister from 2011-2014.
The new Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan worked as minister for emergency situations in the previous government. Tonoyan, 49, was Armenia’s first deputy defense minister from 2010-2017. A graduate of Russia’s Military-Diplomatic Academy, he represented the Armenian military at the NATO headquarters in Brussels from 1998-2007.
Pashinyan’s choice of finance minister is Atom Janjughazian, a longtime deputy finance minister and head of the Armenian state treasury.
Pashinyan met with the newly appointed cabinet members on Sunday, saying that his “government of accordâ€
