President Vahagn Khachaturyan and Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan visited Georgia and Kazakhstan in the last ten days of March. They were transferred by a businessman MP, a member of the ruling “Civil Agreement” faction Khachatur Sukiasyan the business class plane (business jet) of a family-owned airline.
“Flyuan Armenia” LLC of Sukiasyans received 28,600,000 drams from the RA state budget (taxes included) only to take the delegation of Deputy Prime Minister Grigoryan to Kazakhstan and bring it back. At the current exchange rate of the Central Bank, this amount is equal to about 77 thousand. dollar How much did the airline earn? To bring Khachaturyan back to Georgia, the president’s staff does not say.
Below is Hetq’s investigation in its entirety.
Yerevan-Tbilisi-Yerevan, not by a state plane, but by a private plane
On March 22, V. The delegation led by Khachaturyan flew from Yerevan to Tbilisi on a working visit to participate in the funeral ceremony of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilya II of All Georgia.
In the photos published by the official website of the president, we see that Khachaturyan was accompanied by KGS Minister Zhanna Andreasyan and RA Ambassador to Georgia Ashot Smbatyan. In addition to participating in the funeral, V. Khachaturyan had a private conversation with the President of Georgia, Mikheil Kavelashvili.
The high-ranking officials of the Republic of Armenia, in particular the President and the Prime Minister, are served by the government plane of the Republic of Armenia, the Airbus A319 ACJ type aircraft, which is a VIP aircraft. In 1998 This production plane is the property of RA and has been operated in our country since 2007.
The flights of the state board that serve the prime minister are currently numbered FIE4001, in the case of the president – FIE4002, for other officials (for example, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs) – FIE4003 (FIE is the code of “Flyuan Armenia”, which operates the state plane from September 2023, and the number identifies the official taking advantage of the flight).
On March 22, when the president was scheduled to leave for Tbilisi, the Airbus A319 was not involved in other official flights (FIE4001 or FIE4003), according to online flight tracking platforms. But why Khachaturyan did not fly on the state plane is not clear.
Instead, the president was served by a Gulfstream G450 business jet owned by “Flyuan Armenia” LLC. The plane took off from Yerevan on the morning of the 22nd of the month at 9:06, landing in Tbilisi 30 minutes later.
The president and his entourage returned the same evening. The return flight lasted 32 minutes.
The G450’s flight history on Flightradar24.com suggests that it is mostly based at Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan. But it should be emphasized that the aircraft is not registered in RA, but in Romania as YR-SIL (YR is the national symbol of Romania, and SIL is on behalf of the company “SIL Capital” owned by the Sukiasyan family, which was a shareholder in “Flyuan Armenia” in 2022-2025). The aircraft is operated by FlyOne Romania, the Romanian sister company of Flyuan Armenia (both are part of the Moldovan Fly One airline network).
Free shipping or government purchase from former partners?
50% of “Flyuan Armenia” belongs to Eduard Sukiasyan, one of the brothers of Khachatur Sukiasyan, KP MP, 4% – to the general director of the company Aram Khachatryan, the remaining 46% – to the Moldavian Fly One airline. In other words, E. Sukiasyan is the largest owner of the airline.
On the other hand, Khachatur, Saribek and Eduard Sukiasyan own the control package of “Armeconombank” OJSC, 51.45%. And in 2022, Vahagn Khachaturyan, who was elected president by the National Assembly in 2019-2021. was a free member of the board of “Armeconombank” OJSC. Moreover, the head of the air carrier A. is a member of this council. Khachatryan, and the chairman of the board is Saribek Sukiasyan.
In other words, the country’s president was served by an aircraft belonging to a large business family, on the other hand, Khachaturyan is a former partner of the Sukiasyans in the banking business. How did this happen?
Two options are likely.
The first is the option of transporting the president for free or providing him with a free service, taking into account Khachaturyan’s connection with the Sukiasyans.
However, in this case, we face a legal ban, because the Law on “Public Service” prohibits public office holders, including the president of the country, from accepting gifts in connection with the performance of their official (service) duties. The concept of “gift” implies any property advantage, including a service provided free of charge or at an inadequately low price, or other actions, as a result of which a person receives a benefit or an advantage, and which is provided due to the fact that the person occupies a position.
The second option is to make a state purchase, that is, Khachaturyan’s staff purchased a transportation service at the expense of the state budget, which was provided by the Sukiasyans’ aircraft. But by what procedure was the purchase made? If the “one-person” (without tender) procedure was chosen, then on what legal basis and why was “Flyuan Armenia” or FlyOne Romania chosen (it is not clear with which of these the contract was signed, if, of course, the state procurement was carried out)?
Let’s emphasize that the fact that the president used the Sukiasyans’ business jet (regardless of whether it was free or for a fee) raises the question of whether there is no conflict of interest here.
The Law “On Public Service” states that a person holding a position must avoid a conflict of interest situation, refrain from taking action (inaction) or making a decision in such a situation.
And the conflict of interests is a situation when the private interests of the person holding a position (in this case, V. Khachaturyan) affect or can affect the impartial and objective performance of his official duties. Private interest includes any privilege, in particular, to those persons (in this case, Sukiasyans) or organizations with whom he has business, political or other business or personal relations.
Thus, if the transportation was free, then, in fact, we are dealing not only with violating the legal prohibition of accepting a gift, but also with a conflict of interests, because such a gift should affect the impartial and objective performance of the official duties of the president. And if the transportation was for a fee, from the point of view of the conflict of interests, the question arises as to why “Flyuan Armenia” (or FlyOne Romania) was chosen, whether that choice was not influenced by V. Khachaturyan’s personal and previous business relationship with the Sukiasyans.
Considering all this, we asked President Khachaturyan if he does not see a conflict of interest in the fact that, as a high-ranking RA official, he used the services provided by the plane owned by the Sukiasyans’ airline.
We were also interested in why he did not fly on the RA state aircraft, did the G450 provide the transportation service free of charge or for a fee, if it was for a fee, was a state purchase made and from whom, the Armenian “Flyuan Armenia” or the Romanian FlyOne Romania, by what procedure was the purchase made (it is assumed that it was a “one person” procedure – ed.). If the purchase was made from “one person”, what is its legal justification, and even then, why was the company directly (Flyuan Armenia) or indirectly (FlyOne Romania) related to the Sukiasians chosen? We asked you to tell us how much the transportation service contract was value.
How high-ranking officials “protect” themselves from journalists’ questions
In response to “Hetk” inquiry, the Public Relations Department of the President’s Office informed that according to the provisions of the Law on “Purchases”, the expenses of the RA President’s stay, food, transportation, transportation services are included in the procurement plan containing state secrets. Based on this, the president’s staff refused to answer Hetk’s questions.
The Law “On Purchases” defines: “The procurement plan containing state secrets includes the goods, works and services required for the provision of ceremonial expenses, accommodation, food and transportation services for officials (including the President of RA) provided for in Article 5, Part 2 of the Law “On Ensuring the Security of Persons Subject to Special State Protection” (emphasis is ours – ed.).
Our experience shows that this provision of the law adopted in December 2016 has become a way for high-ranking officials and their staffs to “protect” themselves from unwanted questions from journalists. In this sense, the current officials are effectively duplicating the experience of their predecessors.
In 2018, we wrote that the Gulfstream G650 type business jet belonging to businessman Samvel Karapetyan transported the delegation of Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan to Zurich in January of that year to participate in the Davos World Economic Forum. The government informed the press that no money was allocated from the state budget for the aircraft lease. Considering that businessman S. Karapetyan, then (2016-2018) Prime Minister K. Karapetyan is the friend and father-in-law, we had expressed doubt that the flight was made free of charge (that is, K. Karapetyan didn’t even pay from his own pocket), but in that case, the option of violating the Law on “Public Service” arose, because a public servant is prohibited from receiving services from other persons in connection with official duties.
The government did not answer our questions, that is, they did not deny the fact of the conflict of interests and violation of the law. They also did not say whether Prime Minister Karapetyan paid for the service from his own pocket, confirming our suspicion that the plane served his delegation for free.
Then, thanks to a tip from one of our readers, we found out that S. In July 2017, Karapetyan’s business jet transported President Serzh Sargsyan to Tehran to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected president of Iran.
When S. We asked Sargsyan’s staff whether payment was made from the state budget for the air transportation service, and we received the same answer as V. Khachaturyan’s staff.
Although the staffs of the former and current presidents have referred to the Law “On Purchases”, from which it can be assumed that the transportation service was purchased and not provided to the officials for free, in reality, one cannot be sure in this matter and claim that it was so, first of all, taking into account the relations between Serzh Sargsyan and Samvel Karapetyan, as well as Vahagn Khachaturyan and Sukiasyan.
When the president’s staff refers to the state secret and, being “protected” behind it, does not comment on the possible conflict of interests, it only strengthens the suspicions that at least a conflict of interests has occurred.
Refer to the law according to discretion and political situation
Our experience has also shown that referring to the above provision of the “Procurement” Law and not disclosing information about the use of private business jets can be done according to the discretion and political situation. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did something similar. You can get acquainted with the details from the links presented below.
77 thousand dollars for the transportation of Mher Grigoryan’s delegation
On March 18, Prime Minister Pashinyan made a decision to send a delegation to Kazakhstan (Shimkend) headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan. It included Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mnatsakan Safaryan, RA Ambassador to Kazakhstan Armen Ghevondyan, Deputy Minister of Economy Narek Hovakimyan, Deputy Chairman of the SRC Rafael Gevorgyan, Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Protocol.
Pashinyan instructed his chief of staff Araik Harutyunyan to organize a flight. on March 26 – Yerevan-Shimkend, and on March 27 – via the Shimkend-Yerevan route.
Both on March 22 (the day of the president’s flight) and on March 26-27, the RA state Airbus A319, according to aviation platforms, was not involved in flights. However, in this case too, M. Grigoryan’s delegation was taken to Kazakhstan and brought back by Sukiasyan’s Gulfstream G450.
Since the Deputy Prime Minister is not an official subject to state protection, and the above-mentioned provision of the Law on “Purchases” on state secrets does not apply to him, we are the head of the Prime Minister’s Office A. We sent a request to Harutyunyan with the same content as to the president’s office, expecting a proper answer. But Armen Khachatryan, head of the information and public relations department of the staff, did not answer the following questions.
1. Why didn’t the RA delegation use the RA government plane, or why didn’t they purchase airline tickets from regular passenger airlines, but chose to use the services of a business class plane?
2. Before signing the contract, was a price comparison made between the service provided by this aircraft and the ticket prices of airlines performing regular passenger transportation?
3. If the purchase was made through the “one person” procedure, what is its legal justification, and even in that case, why was a contract signed with a company directly (Flyuan Armenia) or indirectly (FlyOne Romania) related to the family of a member of the ruling faction?
The Prime Minister’s Office informed that the payments stipulated in the contract were made under the article “expenses for foreign business trips”, within the framework of which the expenses are not entered into the armeps.am public procurement platform. Nevertheless, they sent us the contract signed between the Prime Minister’s office and “Flyuan Armenia” LLC on March 24.
Sukiasyan’s company undertook to transport 7 people from Yerevan to Shimkend, and from there to Yerevan, by business class Gulfstream G450.
The contract included airport service, catering, VIP service, aircraft operation services, including crew, fuel, maintenance, aeronautical, airport fees. The price of the contract is 28,600,000 drams (including taxes and duties), which at the current exchange rate of the Central Bank is equal to about 77,000 drams. dollar
The questions remain unanswered as to why the delegation of the Deputy Prime Minister did not leave with “regular” airline(s). There is no direct flight between Yerevan and Shimkend, but logically, transportation could be organized by connecting flights. That is why we asked the head of the Prime Minister’s office whether a price comparison was carried out. The lack of an answer to this raises new questions, such as why “Flyuan Armenia” of Khachatur Sukiasyan’s family was chosen as a member of the ruling team.
Vahe Sarukhanyan
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