On 24 May, Aram Simonyan, the long-serving rector of the oldest Armenian university, the Yerevan State University (YSU), stepped down from his office.

Simonyan said that his resignation was prompted mainly by the tense atmosphere created ahead of the university’s centenary. “The tense situation at the university is not easing, but it is indeed escalating. The country’s authorities accuse me of being stuck to this seat for staying in office for too long. It is ridiculous. I have never been stuck to the seat”, he said.

Simonyan has been under mounting pressure to step down since the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Armenia’s former government with which he had close political ties. Critics, among them prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, have long accused him of placing YSU under the strong influence of the former ruling Republican Party (HHK), which he has been a member of since 1997. In December 2018, a government body implicated that the YSU administration had serious financial irregularities. In February, the Armenian police likewise alleged Simonyan of embezzling YSU funds and engaging in other corrupt practices over the past decade. It was also noted that the minister of education, Araik Arutyunyan, spoke about the need for rector Simonyan to resign.

Another possible reason for Simonyan’s resignation were the frequent student protests since 2018 at YSU. The students protested against the low quality of education, the absence of academic freedom, no-transparency of management and an inappropriate waste of resources by YSU. Since Pashinyan took office, protests against the leadership of Armenian universities had been mounting. On May 15, under the pressure of student activists, the rector and chairman of the board of the Shirak University resigned from their offices. The students of the Yerevan Institute of Theatre and Cinema have also driven their rector to resign. However, they also did not support the new rector, who was elected on 22 May.