Dr. Arpine Soghoyan, who clashed with Prime Minister, dismissed:  official reason cited as staff reduction

ArmInfo.  Arpine Soghoyan, an obstetrician-gynecologist who entered into a verbal conflict with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the election campaign, has been dismissed from her position. Her daughter, lawyer Tatevik Sogoyan, shared this information on her Facebook page.

According to her daughter, Arpine Soghoyan was dismissed after 21  years of "impeccable service" at a Yerevan polyclinic. The  administration cited a staff reduction due to a lack of funding as  the official justification.

"In other words, the polyclinic will continue to have a women's  consultation department, but it will no longer have a head of  department. Thousands of women in the administrative district,  including expectant mothers, will now be left without the oversight  of an experienced department head," the doctor's daughter wrote. She  noted that the official explanation appears particularly absurd  against the backdrop of the billions of drams the municipality spends  on various entertainment events. "However, I will return to this  subject later,"  Tatevik Soghoyan promised.

According to the lawyer, her mother's dismissal under the pretext of  staff reductions is the best testimony to Arpine Soghoyan's  conscientious work and further proof of how dissent is treated in the  "bastion of democracy," which proclaims the protection of freedom of  speech. "My mother's spirits are high, and she has good employment  prospects," she concluded.

Recall, in May of this year, during an election campaign event, the  Prime Minister engaged in a verbal altercation with Arpine Soghoyan,  the sister of Hrant  Papikyan, a soldier who went missing during the  44- day war in 2020. Soghoyan stated that Pashinyan had "ruined the  country" and called him an "enemy of the people." When she attempted  to walk away, the Prime Minister took her by the arm, attempting to  continue the conversation despite her clear reluctance.

The argument continued in a heated tone. Later, media reports emerged  suggesting that the director of the polyclinic where Soghoyan worked  had asked her to resign voluntarily, but she had refused.

Meanwhile, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan stated that the doctor could  not be dismissed for political reasons, especially given that she is  a woman who had lost her brother in the war. He stated that while the  authorities would respond to those who insult them, it did not mean  that a person could be fired or that such a threat existed.