The former rector of the Yerevan State Linguistic University complains that the Ministry of Education and Science avoids furnishing the court with materials concerning the case over his dismissal.

Suren Zolyan, who was sacked controversially in April for a failure to notify the minister about a business trip to Europe, told Tert.am on Wednesday that the judge had asked the Ministry at the previous hearing to submit to the court the documents by which he authorized one of his deputies to replace him in his absence.

“It is fixed in both the university’s charter and my employment contract. Let me also note that Mr. minister found an infringement in the provision, considering the Law on Non-Commercial State Organizations a violation, which served as grounds for my dismissal,” he said, adding that the Wednesday hearing was postponed because of the Ministry’s failure to submit the document.

Zolyan said that the court had even asked the Ministry to assist in the process.

“Every time on leaving for a business trip I issued an order on vesting my duties [with a deputy], so submitting those documents is no problem at all. That’s neither an archive document nor a paper containing a state secret,” he added.

The ex-rector is convinced that the employees of the Ministry are not to blame for the failure as they would never have risked bringing their work into question. He said it is more plausible that they were forced not to submit anything to the court.


Zolyan believes that the Ministry will not reject the court’s demand eventually and can only delay the submission process a little.

“I cannot do anything, so I have to wait. The court scheduled the next hearing for August 30, so it remains to be seen if they will submit the documents then,” he said.

Zolyan further referred to the European Convention on Human Rights which requires that everyone should have an effective remedy in national courts.

“If, in this case, the Ministry is drawing out the proceeding, I have an opportunity to directly apply to the Strasburg court as it is impossible even to obtain the most ordinary document,” he said.