Tuesday,
Armenian Tycoon’s Businesses Probed For Tax Fraud
• Artak Hambardzumian
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (L) awards a state medal to businessman
Samvel Aleksanian in Yerevan, 26 September 2015.
The National Security Service (NSS) confirmed on Tuesday that it has launched a
tax evasion investigation into Armenia’s largest retail chain controlled by
Samvel Aleksanian, a wealthy businessman representing the former ruling
Republican Party (HHK) in parliament.
An NSS spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the
law-enforcement body is now looking to the Yerevan City supermarket chain’s
financial statements and other records. The official said the NSS will give
some details of the probe later this week.
Neither Aleksanian nor Yerevan City has made any official statements on the
audit yet.
Aleksanian, 49, is one of Armenia’s richest men who has long effectively
controlled lucrative imports of sugar, cooking oil and other basic foodstuffs.
He has had close ties with the country’s former leaders, notably former
President Serzh Sarkisian. The latter still heads the HHK.
Aleksanian has been a member of the Armenian parliament since 2003. He always
ran for the National Assembly on the HHK ticket.
The inquiry into suspected tax evasion at Yerevan City food supermarkets
followed a crackdown on corruption announced by Artur Vanetsian, the new head
of the NSS, on May 19. Vanetsian pledged to target individuals who have long
“stolen money from the state.”He said the NSS will also expose numerous cases
of tax evasion.
The NSS arrested late last week three senior executives of a customs brokerage
firm accused of failing to pay millions of dollars worth of taxes. Vanetsian
promised on Monday more corruption “revelations” in the coming days.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who named Vanetsian as NSS head two days after
taking office on May 8, said on Tuesday that the audit of Aleksanian’s
supermarkets is part of a “process of establishing law and order in Armenia.”
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) introduces the newly appointed
chief of the State Revenue Committee Davit Ananian (L) to the Committee's
staff, Yerevan,18May,2018
Pashinian stood by his earlier statements that his government will not be
waging “vendettas” against members of the former ruling regime or individuals
linked to them. “But there won’t be lawlessness either,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “If anyone tries to interpret this position as
a sign of our weakness they will get a crushing blow. You can be sure about
that.”
“I am calling on everyone to sober up and fulfill their obligations to the
state in full,” Pashinian went on. “Everyone is now exempt from corrupt
obligations. But let no one think that they can deceive the state.”
The premier specifically urged businesses to voluntarily compensate the state
for “taxes not paid in the past.” They had better do that before being
investigated by the NSS, he said.
Meanwhile the new head of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), Davit
Ananian, clarified that the authorities suspect Yerevan City and a dozen other
supermarket chains of using fraud scams to evade taxes in their retail sales of
fresh agricultural produce. Ananian said he has already met their top
executives and warned them to stop doing that.
“We just gave them a few days’ time to sort out their [cash register-related]
program issues and move on,” he said.
Former Ruling Party Loses Two More Parliament Seats
Armenia - Deputies from the Republican Party of Armenia attend a parliament
session in Yerevan, 22 May 2018.
One deputy defected while another was expelled from the parliamentary faction
of Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) on Tuesday, reducing its
majority in the National Assembly to only three seats.
One of them, Shirak Torosian, broke ranks to vote for opposition leader Nikol
Pashinian during the May 8 election of the country’s new prime minister, as did
another HHK parliamentarian, Felix Tsolakian.
The HHK leadership had ordered 11 other members of its 58-strong faction to
back Pashinian’s candidacy under pressure from tens of thousands of people
demonstrating in Yerevan. It condemned Torosian and Tsolakian for defying that
decision.
Consequently, the HHK faction decided to oust Torosian from its ranks on
Tuesday. It issued a statement to that effect shortly after the lawmaker
announced that he himself is quitting the parliament majority.
In a Facebook post, Torosian, who was never formally affiliated with the former
ruling party, cited the “incompatibility” of his and the HHK’s views on ongoing
“political processes” in Armenia. He also indicated that another party, of
which he is a member, supports fresh parliamentary elections sought by
Pashinian but opposed by the HHK.
The party called Hzor Hayrenik (Powerful Fatherland) mainly unites natives of
Georgia’s Javakheti region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians. Torosian was
also born and raised in the region bordering northwestern Armenia.
The other parliamentarian, Artur Gevorgian, said he has decided to leave the
HHK and terminate his membership in the party altogether. “I don’t want to see
a struggle between a political force making up the [parliamentary] majority and
the [Pashinian-led] popular movement,” he wrote on Facebook. “It is unnecessary
and extremely dangerous.”
Gevorgian, who is a former boxer and boxing coach, also signaled support the
idea of snap elections. But he said they alone cannot solve the “existing
political crisis.”
Incidentally, Gevorgian is the son-in-law of Vladimir Gasparian, the former
chief of the Armenian police. Pashinian fired Gasparian two days after taking
office. But he stopped short of publicly criticizing the police general’s track
record.
The HHK held 58 seats in the 105-member parliament until the Pashinian-led
protest movement forced Sarkisian to resign as prime minister on April 23. The
formal and de facto defections mean that it now technically controls 55
parliament seats, just enough to block the new government’s bills and other
initiatives.
Government Accused Of ‘Political Pressure’ On Yerevan University Head
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Aram Simonian, the Yerevan State University rector, holds a news
conference in his office, .
The Yerevan State University (YSU) administration accused Armenia’s new
government of exerting “political pressure” on its rector, Aram Simonian, on
Tuesday after he was confronted by angry students demanding his resignation.
Simonian, who is affiliated with the former ruling Republican Party (HHK), has
faced growing pressure to step down since the April 23 resignation of Prime
Minister Serzh Sarkisian resulting from massive anti-government demonstrations.
Students involved in the popular revolution led by Sarkisian’s successor, Nikol
Pashinian, accuse him of mismanagement and corruption. They also accuse him of
having abused his powers to spread HHK influence on Armenia’s largest and
oldest university during his decade-long tenure.
More than a hundred of them demonstrated outside the main YSU building in
Yerevan on Tuesday morning before holding a tense meeting with Simonian in a
university conference hall. They refused to leave the auditorium and began a
sit-in there after he rejected their demands. The protest continued late in the
evening.
“We waited for about month, hoping that there will be some reforms in the
university and that there will be some statements in support of the students,”
said Davit Petrosian, a leader of the protesting students. “But the opposite
happened.”
Armenia - Students meet with Aram Simonian, the Yerevan State University
rector, to demand his resignation, .
Simonian insisted that the demands are “not legitimate” and that only a small
percentage of YSU’s 17,000 or students are demonstrating against him. “This is
not democracy, this is repression, including for my political views and party
affiliation,” he told reporters. “I won’t make any concessions under duress.”
Simonian went on to accuse Pashinian’s government of being behind the protests.
He argued that two recently appointed government officials joined the students
holed up in the YSU auditorium.
In a statement released later in the day, the YSU administration likewise
charged that the protests are being “guided” by the new government. It said
that the protesters have not come up with any “legal grounds” for Simonian’s
resignation and are targeting him because of his HHK affiliation.
EU Envoy Impressed With Armenian ‘Revolution Of Mindsets’
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - Piotr Switalski, head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, speaks at an
event in Yerevan, 24 January 2018.
The recent dramatic events changed not only Armenia’s government but also the
“mindsets” of its citizens and earned the country a “very positive image”
abroad, a senior European Union diplomat said on Tuesday.
“I believe that what happened in Armenia is something very deep,” Piotr
Switalski, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, told RFE/L’s Armenian
service in an interview. “It’s not just about a change in power, it’s not about
bringing new faces or new political personalities into the government. It’s not
about changing policies.”
“This was a revolution of mindsets,” he said. “People decided to get rid of the
remnants of past thinking, past syndromes. I believe that is something lasting.
In particular, the young people [in Armenia] are different people now.”
“The challenge for the [new] government and also for the society at large is to
sustain this positive change and this positive energy which has started
emanating from the people,” stressed Switalski.
The envoy also praised Armenia’s former leadership, the leaders of protest
movement that removed it from power as well as “other political and societal
forces” for jointly ending the nearly month-long unrest.
“I think that from the political point of view what happened in Armenia was
very unique because the crisis which erupted in Armenia has been solved,
defused peacefully and within the constitutional frameworks, which has sent a
very powerful message to the outside world … This message is building a very
positive image of Armenia in the outside world,” he said.
“It is sending a powerful signal about the solidarity, unity and political
maturity of the Armenian society,” added Switalski.
The EU closely monitored the crisis in Armenia sparked by former President
Serzh Sarkisian’s attempt to hold on to power after serving out his second
presidential term on April 9. It repeatedly urged Armenian political factions
to end the standoff through dialogue.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the
European Commission president, sent a congratulatory letter to Nikol Pashinian,
the main organizer of massive anti-Sarkisian protests, two days after he was
elected prime minister on May 8. “We look forward to cooperating with you in
your new position to further strengthen the relations between the European
Union and Armenia,” they wrote.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” reports that senior members of the Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK) were offended by the new government’s decision to invite only three of
them to Monday’s official ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the
establishment of the first Armenian republic. HHK representatives claim that
Ara Babloyan was invited in his capacity as a member of the HHK’s parliamentary
faction, rather than speaker of the National Assembly. The party spokesman,
Eduard Sharmazanov, condemned that as a “violation of protocol and ethics.”
“This behavior by the National Assembly leadership is surprising,” comments
“Zhoghovurd.” “You probably remember the humiliations to which the parliament
and its leadership were periodically subjected during Serzh Sarkisian’s
presidency and especially when he was preparing to become prime minister. The
most vivid example of that is the composition of the new National Security
Council determined through a law. The head of the legislative branch was not
included in this very important state body.” The paper says Babloyan and his
deputies did not complain about that then.
“Zhamanak” reports that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said during
his visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia that France is ready to support “creative
proposals” to accelerate the Karabakh peace process. “At the same time he said
in Yerevan that both the status quo and the use of force are unacceptable,”
writes the paper. It claims France and the two other mediating powers, the
United States and Russia, are now in a state of “certain confusion” about the
future of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
“Aravot” notes that unlike revolutionary regimes in many other countries
Armenia’s new government is keen to stick to the constitution and laws during
the ongoing political transition. The paper praises this “legalistic behavior”
and sees only minor and temporary “deviations” from it. But it wonders how
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political team will be going about
forcing snap parliamentary elections later this year.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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