According to the Armenian media, according to the decision of the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, Sargis Khandanyan was appointed the head of the prime minister's office. But who is Pashinyan's newly appointed chief of staff?
It is known that Khandanyan, who studied anthropology at the University College of London, is closely connected with the Civilitas Foundation and its media project - CivilNet, where Khandanyan worked as a journalist for five years. To understand what the Civilitas Foundation is all about, it's enough to look at the list of its partners: USAID, the European Union, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UK Embassy in Armenia, as well as NGOs close to the Soros foundation, including Media Initiatives Center (former Internews) and Eurasia Partnership Foundation, supported by USAID. The CivilNet media project, which is quite expected, is a uniquely pro-Western agency as well.
Sargis Khandanyan's photo from his Facebook page
Khandanyan also cooperates with Armenian diaspora organizations in the West, in particular, he worked for a year as public relations officer in the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), headquartered in New York. From 2016 until his appointment as prime minister, Khandanyan was an employee of Armenia's Aurora Prize, a humanitarian initiative closely associated with the Armenian diaspora and serving as an important tool for lobbying in the West.
Khandanyan was one of the active supporters of opening the Armenian-Turkish border, and also one of those who sharply opposed transferring 20% of Armenia's stock in Armrosgazprom in 2013. In the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, he adheres to nationalist views, like Nikol Pashinyan, believing that the Karabakh separatists should become a full-fledged party to the talks.
