By Nikol Pashinyan’s decision, Arkady Peleshyan, nicknamed Aka, was appointed acting mayor of Vanadzor.
The latter was the first number of the Workers’ Socialist Party of Armenia in the last local elections in Vanadzor, and this party took the 3rd place in the elections, collecting 4,810 votes. Peleshyan tried to become the mayor of Vanadzor in 2016 through the “Armenian Revival” party, but in that election the RPA candidate Mamikon Aslanyan won, who is under arrest. In the elections held in December, the “Mamikon Aslanyan” bloc had the most votes – 12,814 votes. The “Mamikon Aslanyan” bloc won 15 seats in the Vanadzor Council of Elders, the “Civil Contract” bloc won 9 seats, the Arkady Peleshyan HASK won 5 seats, and the “Homeland” and “Country of Living” parties received two seats. The ruling “Civil Contract” was not able to form a majority in the Council of Elders in terms of the number and arrangement of mandates, and days after the elections Mamikon Aslanyan was arrested and detained on charges of abusing his official position and committing fraud. Later, the parliamentary majority voted in favor of a bill that would allow the Prime Minister to appoint an acting mayor. Arkady Peleshyan, appointed by Nikol Pashinyan, is known for his criminal stories. According to the “Datalex” information platform, Peleshyan was convicted in 2008 for hooliganism. In particular, according to the court case, he and a friend entered a shop in Vanadzor drunk, argued and dragged the employees of the shop, uttered sexual insults, broke the alcoholic beverages of the shop. During the trial of the criminal case initiated for hooliganism, the newly appointed mayor of Vanadzor repented, admitted his guilt and asked for an expedited trial. The court decided to fine Peleshyan 150,000 drams for this act. Arkady Peleshyan appeared in the spotlight of law enforcement in 2016 after, according to Radio Liberty, he beat the leader of the Armenian Evangelical Church Rafik Grigoryan, accusing him of not supporting him in the local elections. Rafik Grigoryan told that Peleshyan, accompanied by 15 people, approached Grigoryan, separated from him, uttered sexual insults and started hitting him. After the beating, a criminal case was initiated, Peleshyan was brought in, but the case was terminated because the injured caretaker had withdrawn the complaint. According to “Datalex”, “SEF International” universal credit organization provided $ 16,000 to citizen Ashot Markosyan, but the borrower did not fulfill his obligations properly. One of the guarantors for the loan deal was Peleshyan, the “credit organization” also demanded the latter to confiscate $ 7,500. In 2016, Peleshyan received $ 2,380 from ACBA Credit Agricole Bank, but Peleshyan did not fulfill his bank obligations properly and the court decided to confiscate $ 1,330 from him. In 2017, Arkady Peleshyan was appointed Deputy Mayor of Vanadzor. The godfather of the latter’s children is the brother of former NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov. Peleshyan is also close to NSS director Armen Abazyan.