A really disturbing experience that I have never had. We were driving along the road where Sedrak Zatikian, son of Vahan Zatikian who ran the Malatia Sebastia district until he died, was shot. The whole road was a mess, cars were everywhere, the police were shouting at us to turn around.
What is most upsetting […]
Via di cavoli e di re, RFE/RL reports that a senior member of the Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh War Veterans was assassinated in broad daylight yesterday. An innocent bystander was also killed.
Witnesses told RFE/RL that Sedrak Zatikian, head of the Yerkrapah chapter in the city’s Malatia-Sebastia district, was riddled with bullets fired from an expensive […]
Freedom House has released its 2006 Nations in Transit report, “a comprehensive, comparative, multidimensional study focusing on 29 countries and administrative areas from Central Europe to Eurasia.” The report does not make for pleasant reading or provide much optimism for the future, as the official press release indicates.
The Freedom House study Nations in Transit 2006, […]
Armenia liberty reports:
You may remember a while back when 2 bodies were found in a resevoir in Nagorno Karabagh, and they had been clearly beaten and killed. 3 youths were questioned and a videotaped confession was recorded by one of the youths, Razmik Sargsian, aged 20. He claims that the confession was made a a […]
I’ve just received an update on the ongoing saga of Diasporan philanthropists George and Carolann Najarian who were allegedly defrauded in Armenia by a businessman rumored to have close contacts with individuals in the General Prosecutor’s Office. If there was any case that illustrated why the Diaspora must come down hard on the authorities regarding the lack of rule of law and increasing high-level government corruption in Armenia it’s this one.
Najarian vs. Igityan: Court rulings ignored by Prosecutor General’s Office
Summary May 2006
In September 2003, K. George Najarian brought criminal charges against Grigor Igityan, a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, for embezzling investments Najarian made in Armenia starting in 1996. Briefly, Igityan acted as Najarian’s representative in two land development projects (1998-2002), and was a partner with him in a Yerevan photo shop which Najarian purchased in 1996 and financed through 2002. Using the limited Power of Attorney Najarian had granted to him, Igityan illegally privatized the land and buildings in question as well as the photo shop in his name. To this day, despite nearly three years of ongoing investigations and five court decisions rendered by Armenia’s criminal courts (including the Court of Cassation), all confirming Najarian’s claims, this case has not been prosecuted and Igityan still holds full title to Najarian’s properties.
On January 25, 2006 the Court of Appeals handed down the 5th decision confirming that this case is a criminal case, and ordered the case to be reopened by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The Court of Cassation, Armenia’s highest court has refused to hear an appeal of this decision, and therefore the Court of Appeals decision stands as law.
The Court of Appeals decision did the following:
Rejected the notion that this is a civil case clearly stating the case is a criminal case.
Pointed out that in dismissing the case again after naming G. Najarian a victim under Armenia’s Criminal Code, the Investigative Body ignored its own evidence again G. Igityan and failed to follow the courts’ directives. By dismissing the case, the Investigative Boday in effect ‘contradicted’ itself.
Asked, “… if there is an absence of corpus delicti against G. Igityan, then who caused G. Najarian property loss…†which clearly occurred through criminal activity?
Cited the Investigative Body for failing to investigate and properly clarifying various aspects of the case all of which the court listed over several pages. (All of the omissions would support the case against Igityan).
Criticized the Investigative Body for not explaining fully the discrepancies in contracts Igityan had contractors sign and which he presented to Najarian and the actual agreements for payment for less that he had with contractors. (Not only did Igityan steal Najarian’s properties, he also embezzled money through manipulating contracts.) The Court cited the Investigative Body for ignoring these and similar findings pointing to criminal activity in making their decision to dismiss this case.
Asked, “… how it is that Igityan has everything, while nothing is registered in Najarian’s name.â€
In conclusion, the judges wrote: “… G. Najarian, a US citizen, is an aggrieved person in this case, who has property loss through actions prohibited by the Criminal Code of RA, that have been confirmed by all three Courts existent in the Republic of Armenia, and stated by the Investigative Body which is carrying out the investigation of the criminal case. Therefore, the person who committed the actions prohibited by the Criminal Code of RA is to be found out and undergo criminal liability.â€
As of this date, nearly 4 months after the above decision, the Prosecutor General’s Office has not obeyed the court’s ruling. Although the investigation has been reopened, the ‘suspect’ has not been named and Najarian’s attorneys continue to be excluded from the investigative process, contrary to the court’s directives as provided for under Armenian law. Letters from their attorneys to the Prosecutor General’s Office go unanswered.
In addition, Najarian’s attorneys have not been allowed the following:
not allowed to see evidence gathered by the Investigative Body;
not allowed to be present when witnesses are interrogated (and many report they have been intimidated and threatened by their interrogators);
not allowed to question Grigor Igityan, the person who against whom we have filed our complaint.
To add to these injustices, the investigators are continuing with their practice of trying to discredit George Najarian and his wife, Dr. Carolann Najarian, by making bizarre claims. For example, they spread a rumor that the Najarians attempted to bribe an official with the promise of a Harvard education for his child. (Anyone familiar with Harvard and the difficulty with getting in knows this is an offer no one from Boston would ever make!) Not only have they tried these kinds of tactics, but investigators have repeatedly tried to intimidate witnesses who have testified in support of our claims with the hope of getting them to change their testimonies.
We are writing to those concerned with human rights and rule of law in Armenia. This case demonstrates a disregard for the rule of law, transparency of process, and due process. The Courts have, in this case, worked diligently and carefully, resisting the pressures brought to bear on them. However, those charged with investigation and prosecution (the Investigative Body in the Prosecutor General’s Office) have ignored the directives of the Courts, thus putting themselves above the law. In Armenia, there is no way to enforce the decisions of the courts.
For anyone interested in the larger issue of corruption in Armenia, there are interviews I conducted with Amalia Kostanyan and Sona Ayvazian from Transparency International here, here, and here. Hetq Online also interviewed Kostanyan recently here.
As per the results of our 2005 study mentioned earlier, 62.9% of the citizens asked believe that the level of corruption in Armenia has substantially increased in the past three years. 4.5% of the respondents think that the level of corruption remains unchanged, and 17.1% could not provide an answer to that question.
The results of a survey by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development revealed that in the perspective of the businessmen working in our country, in the course of the past three years, corruption has become a more critical problem. While the frequency of illegal payments has decreased, the size of such payments has increased.
Corruption has been a common theme on this blog, and not least because it threatens the future of a nation as a country where it’s citizens can pursue their lives without having to be related to, or without having to grease the hands, of state officials at all levels of government.
All people who love and want Armenia to succeed and thrive need to speak up. Whether it is the Armenian Assembly or the Armenian National Committee, or individual diasporan Armenians, or non-Armenian friends of Armenia, theft of this nature from one should be interpreted as theft from all of us. Moreover, it is a theft from the people of Armenia, not in a monetary sense, but a theft of morals and justice.
Unfortunately it will probably take more cases such as this one involving the Najarians before many in the Diaspora realize how exactly things are done in Armenia.
I thought I’d share this story with you as it really made me think.
A few days ago, a friend of my family called up and was very worried. He is a young man from Armenia who has come to the UK to do a college course. He has a girlfriend and is living in […]
Armenia Now has a special issue dedicated to environmental concerns in the Republic. Unfortunately, since independence, blockade, corruption, poor governance, the lack of accountability and community involvement in the decision making process, as well as the general decline in the rule of law pose a grave threat to Armenia’s long term future.
Armenia can hardly afford to waste or abuse the precious few natural resources offered the tiny, landlocked republic.
[…]
Government authorities, lawmakers and citizens themselves should heed cautious words of environmentalists. And, advocates for everything green must indulge the crucial condition of a society in which a choice for ecology over economy is as real as clean air versus income.
[…]
In these nine articles we report on one factory that is filling a community’s air with toxins, and another that is clogging plants and people with harmful dust. We look inside reasons why Armenia’s forests are dwindling, and we listen to the debate over whether Armenia’s nuclear power plant is safe.
Hetq Online also has more on the environment here, and my article on the campaign to save the Shikahogh Nature Reserve and Mtnadzor Forest, mentioned in the Armenia Now report on deforestation, is here. Thankfully, environmentalists won in this case, but there is still much work to do.
Armenpress: President Robert Kocharian and chief of taxation service Felix Tsolakian discussed today the service’s performance in the first quarter of the year, as well as ways to cut shadow deals in mining and construction businesses and other tax fraud.
Considering that Bagrat Yesayan, Presidential Advisor on “Anti-Corruption” Initiatives, seems to always say the dumbest things ever — see here and here — I’m glad that his effective counterpart in the NGO sector says it how it is. In fact, given that corruption has increased in Armenia, it’s astounding that Yesayan has the audacity to remain in his position.
“The vicious circle of corruption [in Armenia] begins and ends during elections,†the head of the Armenian affiliate of the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, Amalia Kostanian, tells “Azg.†“Since 2003 our organization has been holding a monitoring of pre-election processes and elections in Armenia, and I can say that the situation worsens every time [an election is held].†Kostanian says Transparency International research has found that the courts, the prosecutor’s office, tax and customs authorities, public healthcare, education, the electoral system and government licensing agencies are perceived to be highly corrupt by most Armenians.
Incidently, I’ve interviewed Kostanyan twice since the 2003 Presidential Elections. Both interviews are available here and here.
Now, do you really think that authorities that come to power through political corruption can fight against it? I don’t think so. They can adopt as many strategies and laws as they like but if there is no true desire from the top of the governance system to start fighting corruption in Armenia any strategy and law will fail.
Interestingly, given Nessuna’s previous post, Kostanyan also graduated from the AUA with a Master’s Degree in Political Science and International Relations. Another graduate is probably Armenia’s best journalist and political analyst, RFE/RL’s Emil Danielyan.
Harmick at Blogrel has posted news of the concerning political aspirations of oligarch and MP Gagik Tsarukian (AKA Dodi Gago) and asks is this “a progression to more liberal, European values or a backward step to oligarchic fiefdom?”
Quotes like this from the RFE/RL article that Harmick links to are oncerning to say the least. Has Armenia sunk so low?
Another jobless man loitering nearby said he too will become a Prosperous Armenia member because Tsarukian had once given him firewood to heat his home in the winter. “It’s worth supporting that person,†he said. “It’s even worth making him our king. I just can’t think of a better president for Armenia.â€
Comments are being solicited, and as I feel quite strongly about the continuing criminalization of the highest echelons of political power in Armenia, I’ve made one which hasn’t shown up yet, but which is worth re-posting here.
Hmmm, I wonder how much less the money Dodi Gago gives as charity is from the amount of taxes he apparently avoids paying?
The list had some glaring omissions, including several of Armenia’s most lucrative firms. Gagik Tsarukian, arguably the wealthiest man in the country, owns more than 40 medium and large companies. Only a handful of them were on the list and only one of them, a Yerevan-based winery, posted any earnings. Its first-quarter profit tax of nearly $20,000 is less than the price tag of any of the dozen cars that normally make up Tsarukian’s motorcade.
Tsarukian’s business empire has seen an incredible expansion in recent years. The former arm-wrestler started out as a minority shareholder in one of Armenia’s two largest breweries in the late 1990s. The brewery has claimed to be loss-making since then, and it is not clear how exactly the unusually beefy tycoon, who is very close to the ruling regime, has earned his millions. Some local observers suspect that more powerful individuals are behind Tsarukian’s businesses.
As for the rule of law, take a look at some of Mr Tsarukian’s business associates. Might also be worth looking at what Armenia Now’s Vahan Ishkanyan recently wrote about the man himself.
One of the most powerful, most infamous and famous “akhperutyuns†of Yerevan is Gagik “Dodi Gago†Tsarukyan, who is a close associate of the President’s family, and a Member of Parliament since 2003.
Members of Dodi Gago’s akhperutyun clashed with another akhperutyun in the spring of last year at “Tetsi Krug†for control over a minibus route. A mob estimated at about 200 fought in a planned rumble that left one man dead and at least two injured.
Charges were filed, but not upheld against the main men of the “razborka†(rumble). The same “main men†Hrair “Artashatsi Hro†Harutyunyan and Ashot “Bangladeshtsi Hamo†Avetisyan led their “akhperutyun†in attacking photo journalists, and beating participants in a rally on April 5, 2004, during a demonstration organized by oppositional politician Artashes Geghamyan.
Gagik Tsarukyan’s power extends to Yerevan’s satellite town of Abovyan and the village of Arinj. He also has territories in Yerevan. Two years ago he became the President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia. During the Soviet years he was convicted for rape. But three years ago Armenia’s court expunged his conviction.
