Trucks with no license plates. Loggers not carrying permits, as required by law. The buzz of chainsaws despite the fog and light rain. Lori, one of the most heavily forested regions in Armenia, is rife with illegal logging.
He named restaurant security staffers Garik Margaryan, Arman Khachatryan, Arman Baghdasaryan, Norayr Hayrapetyan; deliveryman and driver Artur Babloyan; waiter Davit Adamyan and manager Davit Hayriyan.
President Sargsyan now has the chance to rid us of one of these notorious crooks. But Sargsyan makes out that he doesn’t see the opportunity now at his fingertips. It’s hard to imagine what the president is thinking.
In Karabakh in 1991, a foreign journalist asked Liberation Army Commander Leonid Azgaldyan, "What color are you? I mean, what political party do you belong to?" Leonid knelt down, scooped up a handful of earth and said, "Here, this is my color."
Newly re-elected MP Ruben Hayrapetyan is a very close acquaintance of President Serzh Sargsyan. Hayrapetyan’s bodyguards recently beat-up an Armenian army officer. The man is hospitalized in grave condition.
She blasted some music on the car’s stereo. It was deafening – “Yerevan, Yerevan, I’m coming back, coming back to stay....” I had heard this song before, but this rabiz melody really grated on my brain like never before.
No one has been brought to justice. You wonder why Armenian law enforcement immediately becomes paralyzed when such incidents take place. One gets the impression that they have been instructed to fold their hands and not launch criminal charges.
The more we dig behind the scenes of the cultural arena in Armenia, the more we unearth frightening proof that the situation is less than adequate.
In the early morning the self-defense forces of the Martuni region of Nagorno Karabakh began an operation to destroy the military strongholds in the villages of the Aghdam region of Azerbaijan.
After Hetq first broke the story about art going missing from the National Gallery, the police promised to tell us why no one has ever been arrested or charged with the theft. The Police Department’s Public Affairs Unit contacted us today, stating that an investigation into the matter and that it was likely that criminal charges would be forthcoming.
Interview with Martin Estrada, from the Criminal Division of the Office of the U.S. Attorney General (U.S. Department of Justice)
After my original article about the pilfering and cover up of $10,000 by Armenian police officials and a court judge, RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan ordered an internal investigation.
In 2010, a 19 century sculpture entitled “Satyr with Lyre”, by an unknown artist disappeared from Armenia’s National Gallery. This fact was concealed for one year by the Gallery’s administration. It later tuned out that another ten art works had also vanished.
If this state of affairs continues, the president will be called upon to OK who gets to be employed as drivers and chauffeurs for state agencies and their top honchos.
Many top law enforcement officials knew about the missing money - RA Deputy Police Chief Gagik Hambardzumyan, Artur Mehrabyan, Chief of the Arabkir Police, and Artzrun Arakelyan, Chief Investigator at the Arabkir Police Department.
A package that had been found on one on the indicted Italians was opened in full view of the court. It should have contained 1.460 million AMD, $2,400 and 30,180 Euros.
The question remains as to whether Mayor Margaryan is capable of making a decision that goes against the grain and thus depart from “business as usual”.
After returning home she played the CD. To her amazement it contained the video-recording of a Skype conversation between Tatyana, the former wife of her dead brother, and a person called Artur.
The sleek black Lexus pictured below belongs to Rafayel Mkrtchyan, an inspector at the State Revenue Committee.
The State Revenue Committee added that by agreeing to do so, “it had offered them the opportunity to more effectively pay their tax debts.”
“The public was never informed regarding the RA government’s decision to allocate forested lands to A&M Rare Ltd.," the land transfer decision states.
Some sources point to a business transaction gone bad; that Babayan had been swindled and was facing a mountain of debt.
Lilit began to cry when I asked about her friends.
Perhaps Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan can explain what pivotal significance it will serve the shaping of the Armenian nation to have one of his party colleagues build a huge commercial center on the site.
First off, all the "victims" have not been brought into the process. Only ten have been questioned, but they number much more.
Mr. Baghdasaryan, in his open letter to PM Sargsyan, had raised several procedural issues surrounding the June 17th hearings that were in violation of Armenia's Freedom of Information laws.
I took us only 15 minutes to pass through the Georgian check point. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to get through the Armenian side. I wanted to find out why.
It is no wonder then that following on the heels of such praise, the local police authorities seemed it prudent to cover up the sexual antics of Der-Boghossian.
Here's yet another story of a diaspora Armenian investor (the Hartounian's) being bullied by officials in Armenia – this time it's the dreaded State Revenue Committee.
MP Tigran Arzakantsyan wasn’t present at the opening fall session of the Armenian National Parliament on September 14, 2010. Was he sick or detained by more urgent state business?
Just try to get anything done at Kanaker's Motor Vehicle office. It's a nightmare of bureaucracy and bribe-taking.
All the while, Der-Boghossian rose up the business ladder of success and made friends in high places. He doled out monetary contributions to top government officials.
Certain individuals in his circle of friends, either by their own initiative or prompted by Arzakantsyan, have written comments threatening Hetq and the reporters in question.
But, you'd have a better chance of bumping into the MP in casinos and nightclubs, rather than any hospital. Maybe this was the medical advice given by his doctors? Some R&R.
Eliz is a woman from Saritagh, a Yerevan neighborhood, who moved to Istanbul eleven odd years ago. She's a veritable "ball of fire".
A Hetq source within the government says that Mr. Papazyan,Executive Director of the Competitiveness Foundation,is being forced out, a victim of mining interests at the Tatev Monastery.
I met him while walking through the narrow streets of KumKapi. The boy was serving tea to customers from a large silver tray. The shop he works for is owned by some Kurds.
RA MP Tigran Arzakantsyan, in an interview with NEWS.am, has denied an earlier Hetq report that he owns an expensive villa in Paris.
The villa shown here is located on a ritzy Paris street named after the French singer Maurice Chevalier. It belongs to RA National Assembly MP Tigran Arzakantsyan.
Paramount Gold Mining Ltd., a company owned by RA National Assembly President Hovik Abrahamyan and MO Tigran Arzakantsyan, was granted license to mine the Meghradzor gold mine’s Lusatchur section in Kotayk Marz.
We had sent some questions to RA Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan regarding the Halidzor gold mine exploratory license. We wanted to know what company had been given the license for the Syunik Marz mine.
If the “values” that have surrounded Serzh Sargsyan during his three year tenure haven’t changed, then there can be no changes in the country as a whole.
Thanks for your response even though it was somewhat surprising, given that our letter to you dated February 15 of this year remains unanswered. Perhaps, if you had answered it, these “inaccuracies” might not have occurred.
Our law enforcement source says that Der-Boghossian might also be charged with trafficking, which carries a seven year maximum sentence.
American-Armenian’s Tax Nightmare in the Motherland
Jivan Gasparyan Calls First Row Attendees “Young Lords”
The above is a question that arises when the institutions of the government don't work. All government structures in Armenia have just one thing on their mind – how to embezzle state funds.
This past February 23, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan hosted a delegation from the Chinese Fortune Oil company. During the meeting, the sides discussed the company’s investment program in Armenia’s mining sector.