Gagik Beglaryan (Armenian: Գագիկ Բեգլարյան) (born January 1, 1964), also knowns as "Cherny" Gago,[2] is an Armenian politician, former mayor of Yerevan. He was the Minister of Transport and Communications of Armenia from 2012 until 2016.
On 4 March 2009, he was appointed acting mayor of Yerevan, pending the 31 May municipal elections. He was then appointed mayor on 8 June, after his party, the Republican Party of Armenia, won the election.
On 8 December 2010 he resigned as mayor, having assaulted an official, following an incident at a Plácido Domingo concert. The official – Aram Kandayan, an employee at the President's protocol department – had asked the mayor's wife to give up her seat. She had been sitting next to the President Serzh Sargsyan in a seat normally reserved for the Prime Minister or the Catholicos of All Armenians.[3][4]
Although not present at the concert, Beglaryan arranged to meet Kandayan after the event and assaulted the latter before he could get out of his car.[5]
On June 16, 2012, he was appointed Minister of Transport and Communications.[6]
Beglaryan is an economist by training, having studied at the Yerevan State University, School of Physics and Mathematics (1978-1981) and the Yerevan Institute of National Economy (1981-1985). In 2004, he defended his thesis “The main social problems of community management”.[7]
^Antonyan, Yulia et al. 2.2 Being an “Oligarch” in the Armenian Way. In Elites and “Elites” - Transformations of social structures in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia, page 165. http://www.ysu.am/files/3-1510055660-.pdf
