Archbishop Bagrat congratulates Gyumri, Parakar residents on victory

PanARMENIAN.Net - Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the spiritual movement, addressed the recent local self-government elections held in Gyumri and Parakar, congratulating the communities on their victory.

"I want to congratulate the people of Gyumri, Parakar, and our communities on this occasion of victory... There were difficulties, especially in Gyumri, which have at least been overcome at this moment, and I hope that it will continue this way—proceeding on the right path with the principle our Lord says: deny yourself, you will gain nothing... Even if you gain the whole world but lose your soul, what benefit is there... All kinds of accounts—big and small, justified or not—are not more than our life, our consciousness, our homeland, our state, and our God," reports Aravot.

"There is no person who desires defeat, except for this evil that praises defeat, considers that defeat belongs to everyone, attributes it to all of us, and tries to spread his defeat onto us—presenting it as victory, sovereignty, achievement, independence..." said the Archbishop, referring to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Central Electoral Commission has summarized the preliminary results of the extraordinary local self-government elections held on March 30, according to which no force received a majority of votes in Gyumri. There will be a need to form political coalitions to elect the community leader. If opposition forces unite, Gyumri will have an opposition mayor.

In Parakar, four political forces participated in the elections: Civil Contract (Ludvig Gyulnazaryan), Unity alliance (Volodya Grigoryan), National Progress party (David Minasyan), and Stability party (Gor Saribekyan). The leading force is the Unity alliance, whose member, the Country to Live party, has announced the victory of its candidate, Grigoryan.