Relatives of missing persons block major Yerevan street protesting security chief layoff

By Alexander Pracht

Since Wednesday afternoon, relatives of persons missing due to hostilities with Azerbaijan have blocked Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue in both directions, voicing alarm over the dismissal of National Security Service (NSS) Director Armen Abazyan, who had been directly involved in their cases.

The former NSS chief, who led the agency since 2020 and also chaired the government commission on missing persons, was dismissed Wednesday morning. Protesters say he had promised to stand by them “until the end” and fear his removal will stall progress on identifying the fate of the missing.

The families are now calling for a meeting with interim NSS Director Andranik Simonyan. Deputy Chief of Police Vardan Vardanyan has visited at the scene to hear their demands, which were also relayed to other senior officials who visited the protest, including NSS counterintelligence chief Davit Sanamyan and Deputy Police Chief Davit Khudinyan.

So far, talks have failed to resolve the standoff. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told parliament yesterday that the change in NSS leadership “cannot affect” ongoing work, insisting the matter is handled institutionally.

Several media outlets have linked Abazayan’s dismissal to the case of Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian billionaire who was arrested in Yerevan yesterday and charged with calling for deposing the government. These reports alleged that Abazyan refused to take part in a crackdown on the billionaire and declined to lead NSS officers in the investigation. Commenting on the matter on Wednesday, Armenia’s Prime MInister Nikol Pashinyan said the NSS director “could not have disobeyed” his instructions.

According to official figures, Armenia is pursuing the cases of around 1,200 missing persons, including nearly 200 soldiers unaccounted for since the 2020 war.