The “Publishing” program is currently underway at the National Printing Academy of Armenia, beginning on December 1st. The deadline for submitting documents for the contest participants has already passed. We have been diligently trying to discover the number of candidates who have applied for the position of publisher and their identities. Unfortunately, Nune Simonyan, the spokesperson for the selection committee members, has refused to respond to our inquiries and has also ignored our phone calls.

We do know that the current publisher, Vardan Uryutyan, along with other members of the creative team, have participated in the program. Our reliable sources at the publishing house have informed us that Vardan Uryutyan did not personally submit his candidacy for the publisher position. Instead, the documents of his business partner, Hrachik Zakoyan, who is the project manager, were submitted at a later date. Interestingly, despite this fact, Vardan Uryutyan, who has been managing the publishing house since 2018, has expressed his willingness to participate again, but has not received approval from the authorities. However, he has hinted that he has a “backroom” connection, which suggests that other potential candidates have not been approached.

We have learned from our sources that there are disagreements between Arayik Harutyunyan, the head of the Prime Minister’s office staff, who is believed to be against PASHA, and our interlocutor from the “ruling” staff, who is involved in this field. Our informant mentioned that it is challenging for him to comment on whether the advice of intellectuals will choose Zakoyan as the publisher. Therefore, the candidates are keeping their identities secret until the end, until there is a final agreement on who will be chosen.

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