The American University of Armenia (AUA) has appointed a close political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to its Board of Trustees and brought another Civil Contract figure back as an adjunct lecturer, following weeks of public criticism from the ruling party over alleged pro-opposition bias.
AUA faced a wave of attacks in July from government ministers, pro-government lawmakers, and other Civil Contract voices after one of its instructors, Samvel Farmanyan, posted an offensive social media message targeting Pashinyan and his family. Farmanyan previously served in parliament and worked as press secretary to former President Serzh Sargsyan. Even after AUA condemned the post and Farmanyan said he would resign, the backlash continued.
Civil Contract MP Taguhi Ghazaryan was among the most outspoken critics, accusing AUA of sympathizing with Pashinyan’s political opponents. She pointed to a petition signed by 45 AUA professors calling for the prime minister’s resignation after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Ghazaryan, who began working at AUA in 2023 as a teaching assistant in Armenian language and literature, also complained that the university did not renew her short-term contract.
As the election period approaches, Ghazaryan told a pro-government outlet, Civil Contract’s presence at the university is “decreasing and disappearing.”
An AUA representative told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that Ghazaryan has been rehired and is now working as an adjunct lecturer.
Separately, AUA announced on Tuesday that Pashinyan’s chief adviser, Lilit Makunts, has joined its Board of Trustees, filling a seat left vacant after the death of a prominent Armenian academic last year. The university said Makunts brings an “extensive record of service” in Armenia’s public sector.
Makunts, 41, previously taught English at the Russian-Armenian University in Yerevan and has been reported to have tutored Pashinyan before the 2018 “velvet revolution.” After that political upheaval, she became culture minister, later served as the ruling party’s parliamentary leader in name, and then as Armenia’s ambassador to the United States.
Earlier this month, AUA also published a video featuring Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan praising a nursing program launched by the university’s College of Health Sciences in 2022. Avanesyan had joined the July criticism, suggesting the university administration was engaged in “political persecution” of government loyalists.
Founded in 1991 with support from Armenian philanthropists in the United States and Armenia’s first post-Communist government, AUA is affiliated with the University of California and has grown into one of Armenia’s most reputable higher-education institutions.
