Tuesday,
Armenian Speaker Linked With Luxury Housing Project
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen SImonian chairs a session of the National
Assembly, November 24, 2022.
Raising more questions about corruption in Armenia, an independent investigative
publication has suggested that parliament speaker Alen Simonian may be involved
in the ongoing construction of an expensive residential complex.
In an article published on Monday, Hetq.am revealed that a longtime friend of
Simonian, Edgar Avagian, has a 25 percent stake in the real estate project,
worth an estimated $40-50 million, despite not being known to be a wealthy man.
It wondered if Avagian, who now works for a TV channel officially run by
Simonian’s wife, is acting as a front for the influential member of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.
Simonian, who had already been accused of helping his brother win lucrative
government contracts, was quick to strongly deny any connection to the sprawling
complex built in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor. In a Facebook post, he accused
the publication of failing to back up its implicit claims with any evidence.
The Pallada Tsaghkadzor complex occupying 1.6 hectares of land is projected to
consist of nine buildings with a total about 700 apartments, a number of shops,
a restaurant as well as a fitness center. The company building it also has three
other shareholders: one Georgian and two Armenian investors.
Armenia - The Pallada Tsaghkadzor residential complex plan.
The author of the Hetq article, Tirayr Muradian, insisted on Tuesday that he
asked legitimate questions about Simonian’s role in the project facilitated by
Tsaghkadzor’s mayor affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party. He argued
that Avagian has never engaged in large-scale business in construction or other
sectors before and has only held managerial positions in various Armenian TV
stations.
“What is the logic behind his involvement in the construction project?” the
journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “What does he have in common with the
other developers?”
The article pointed out that in 2017 a court in Yerevan declared Avagian
bankrupt after his failure to repay $44,000 in debts to two commercial banks.
Simonian’s friend still owes money to those banks, according to it.
Avagian could not be reached for comment. A lawyer representing him said that he
is currently not in the country.
Muradian said that it is only natural to speculate that Avagian used his close
ties with Simonian to gain the 25 percent stake in the project or that it might
actually belong to the speaker.
“These people came to power [in 2018] with little business experience or
capital, but within a very short period of time they got involved in large
business projects,” he said. “If they are so smart what kept from doing that
without power?”
Armenia -- Journalist Tirayr Muradian speaks to RFE/RL, .
The journalist referred to members of Pashinian’s entourage increasingly accused
by Armenian media of enriching themselves or their cronies and breaking their
anti-corruption promises given during the 2018 “velvet revolution.”
In March this year, hackers hijacked the YouTube channel of the Aravot newspaper
just as it was about to publish a video report detailing expensive property
acquisitions by several senior government officials and pro-government
lawmakers, including Simonian.
Earlier this year, Pashinian blamed such reports for a drop in Armenia’s
position in an annual corruption survey conducted by Transparency International.
He publicly urged senior officials to sue media outlets “falsely” accusing them
of illicit enrichment. The prime minister again claimed to have eliminated
“systemic corruption.”
There are also growing questions about integrity in public procurement
administered by Pashinian’s government. A road construction company managed by
Simonian’s brother Karlen won at least nine government contracts last year.
The controversial speaker has denounced independent and pro-opposition media
outlets for suggesting that the company called Euroasphalt enjoys privileged
treatment by the government. Pashinian has said, for his part, his brother does
not own Euroasphalt.
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service discovered in 2021, however, that one of Euroasphalt’s
two officially registered addresses matches that of a Yerevan apartment where
the Simonians’ mother lived at the time.
Prominent Karabakh General Prosecuted
• Artak Khulian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Vitaly Balasanian.
Vitaly Balasanian, a retired general who held a senior position in
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership until recently, has been released from custody
after being charged with assault, illegal arms possession and embezzlement.
Balasanian was detained late last week while reportedly attempting to stop
police officers from searching his family’s home in the Karabakh town of
Askeran. His son, the main target of the police raid, and brother were also
taken into custody. They both were freed the following day.
Balasanian remained under arrest, with law-enforcement authorities pressing a
string of charges against him. Despite the indictment, a local court ordered
them to free him on Monday.
Balasanian’s lawyer, Rafael Martirosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on
Tuesday that his client is accused of attacking the policemen, illegally keeping
weapons, ammunition and drugs in his home and embezzling public property.
Balasanian denies the accusations and has come up, according to Martirosian,
with “weighty arguments” disproving them.
No details of the embezzlement charge have been made public so far. Karabakh
prosecutors have only shed light on a separate case opened against Balasanian’s
son, who too denies any wrongdoing. They claim that he misused a 74 million-dram
($190,000) state loan provided for an agribusiness project.
Vitaly Balasanian, 64, was a prominent Karabakh Armenian commander during the
1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He became a vocal critic of Armenia’s Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian after the latter swept to power in 2018. The retired
general was also a major opposition candidate in Karabakh’s last presidential
election held several months before the outbreak of the 2020
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Balasanian was appointed as secretary of Karabakh’s security council in the wake
of the six-week war. In that capacity, he regularly negotiated with the
commanders of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in the region as well as
Azerbaijani officials on security and humanitarian issues.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, sacked Balasanian in January one
month after Azerbaijan blocked commercial traffic through the only road
connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Some opposition figures in Stepanakert have
described the criminal case against the prominent general as politically
motivated. But Balasanian himself has made no such claims so far.
Armenian Opposition Unimpressed By Karabakh Leader’s ‘Extreme’ Move
• Astghik Bedevian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A tent pitched by Arayik Harutiunian outside his office in
Stepanakert, .
Representatives of Armenia’s two main opposition groups on Tuesday criticized
Arayik Harutiunian, Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, for joining a sit-in in
Stepanakert organized by his administration in protest against Azerbaijan’s
blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Harutiunian said late on Monday that he is taking the “extreme” step to try to
draw greater international attention to the plight of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian
population struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and energy. The
Karabakh leadership will resort to “tougher actions” if the humanitarian
situation in the region does not improve within a week, he said without
elaborating.
Harutiunian spent the following night in a tent pitched in Stepanakert’s main
square, the scene of the sit-in that began late last week.
“There are other ways of presenting the situation in Artsakh [to the outside
world,]” Tigran Abrahamian, a senior member of the opposition Pativ Unem
alliance, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “I think that the Artsakh president’s
main task must be crisis management.”
In particular, Abrahamian said, the authorities should in Stepanakert do a
better job of presenting “factual information” about the humanitarian crisis in
Karabakh to foreign governments and international organizations and coordinating
with Armenian Diaspora groups.
Andranik Tevanian, a lawmaker representing the opposition Hayastan alliance, was
more scathing about Harutiunian’s decision, calling it a “cheap theater.”
“A sit-in is a demonstration of one's incompetence if it is done by the leader
of a country,” he wrote on Facebook. “But if you have taken that step, then you
should target the right addressee and give clear assessments.”
Tevanian said that Harutiunian should have first and foremost called Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian out on his recent recognition of Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Karabakh which the Armenian opposition believes only emboldened
Baku to tighten the screws on the Karabakh Armenians.
A top political ally of Harutiunian rejected the opposition criticism. “If they
can't help us with anything, they had better keep quiet,” he said.
Opposition leaders in Yerevan have for years accused Harutiunian of furthering
Pashinian’s agenda. They claim that the Karabakh leader still maintains close
ties with Pashinian despite the fact that his party joined Karabakh opposition
groups in condemning the Armenian government’s stance on the conflict with
Azerbaijan.
Karabakh Leader Joins Protests Against Azeri Blockade
Nagorno Karabakh - The Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian, joins a sit-in in
the center of Stepanakert, July17, 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s president announced late on Monday that he is joining ongoing
protests in Stepanakert against Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor in
a bid to draw greater international attention to the worsening plight of the
region’s ethnic Armenian population.
Arayik Harutiunian said that the Karabakh Armenians are not only struggling with
severe shortages of food, medicine and energy but also facing a “real threat of
physical annihilation.” He said he expects Armenia, Russia, the United States
and the European Union to back up their calls for the lifting of the blockade
with concrete actions and to uphold Karabakh’s right to self-determination.
“If the plight of the people of Artsakh does not return within a week to a more
or less stable and normal state with international intervention, then we will
resort to tougher actions both in Artsakh and outside of it,” he warned before
joining a nonstop sit-in staged in Stepanakert’s central square.
Thousands of people rallied there on Friday at the start of the daily protests
organized by Karabakh’s leadership. They marched to the headquarters of the
Russian peacekeeping contingent to demand that it unblock Karabakh’s only land
link with Armenia and the outside world.
Azerbaijan further tightened the blockade on June 15, banning all relief
supplies to Karabakh carried out by the peacekeepers as well as the
International Committee of the Red Cross. This only aggravated the shortages of
food, medicine, fuel and other essential items experienced by the local
population.
The Russian Foreign Ministry “strongly” urged the Azerbaijani side on Saturday
to lift the blockade and unblock Armenia’s supplies of electricity and natural
gas to Karabakh. Baku rejected the call and criticized Moscow in unusually
strong terms.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko deplored Baku’s “incorrect”
reaction during a meeting with the Azerbaijani ambassador in Moscow on Monday.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rudenko insisted on “the need for
complete and immediate unblocking of the Lachin corridor” and Baku’s compliance
with relevant provisions of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire.
The U.S. and the EU likewise renewed last week their calls for the resumption of
traffic through the corridor. The issue was on the agenda of Saturday’s talks
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders hosted by the EU head, Charles
Michel, in Brussels. Still, an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty was apparently
the main focus of the summit.
Rudenko reiterated a Russian proposal to organized more talks on the treaty
which Moscow says must put in place security guarantees for Karabakh’s
population.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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