Flagrant examples of corruption in Armenia
Our long-term struggle to rebuild Artsakh, to forge a strong technologically advanced Armenian Army, and to shape a solid sustainable economy that provides the basic needs of a nation, will be condemned to a dismal failure if we don’t address and invest a draconian effort to contain the ravages imposed by corruption on the revenues of The Republic of Armenia.
Many readers and friends contacted me and expressed an interest in seeing comparisons based on concrete figures, that they can use to launch a coordinated effort to force the government of PM Pashinyan to take more aggressive measures to combat the hemorrhage the finances of The Republic is currently experiencing due to a rampant corruption in The Republic’s Civil Service.
Our first flagrant example of corruption is Colonel Vladimir Tamrazyan, a 35-year-old high ranking bureaucrat in The Armenian Customs Service. According to financial statements he submitted to the government at the time he was transferred to his new post (Customs), after multiple previous assignments in the Civil Bureaucracy of The State, Tamrazyan declared the following net worth:
1 Lexus LX 570, 1 Lexus ES 250, 3 Land Plots (size and commercial value unknown), 800.000 Euros in a saving account, $750.000 US Dollars in another saving account, last but not least 400.000.000AMD the equivalent of $2.000.000 UDS in a third saving account.
Col. Tamrazyan current annual salary is 3.000.000AMD roughly $6000USD. To purchase a Lexus in Armenia he needs to save his entire three years’ salary, spend nothing on food, clothing, and the other necessities of life to afford a luxury car. Miraculously, heaven rewarded him with 2 luxury cars instead of one.
Meanwhile the average Armenian worker is making monthly 170.000AMD the equivalent of $320USD. He/She has serious difficulties putting bread on the table because the income is totally inadequate to survive in Yerevan if you take into consideration the rent and the presence of one child. The financial burden is more difficult to manage if you have 2 or more children.
Next on our list we would like to add the following names with their respective net worth on similar salaries of approximately 3.000.000AMD annually or $6.000USD:
Judges of the Administrative Court of ArmeniaThe Chairman of the Court, Judge Karen Matevosyan: A saving account of 38.000.000AMD, a second saving account of $41.000USD, and a third saving account of 6000EURO. In 2013, Judge Matevosyan sold a property for 28 million USD. His spouse Irina Hovhannisyan acknowledged to the government that she has a personal saving account of 42.000.000AMD.
Judge Aghasi Darbinyan: a saving account of 38.000.000AMD. In 2013, the judge sold his BMW X5 for 10 million AMD, and his MERCEDES-BENZ 500 for 16 million AMD at a time when his salary was 5.4 million AMD. During the same time frame, his wife Gayane Darbinyan had a personal saving of 35.000.000AMD.
Judge of the Administrative Court, Arman Tovmasyan purchased in 2013 a PORSCHE CAYENNE S vehicle for 13.6 million AMD. His cash assets totaled to 10.000.000AMD and $55.000USD. In 2014 he purchased a Mercedes-Benz for 15 million AMD and declared a saving account of $55.000USD.
Judge Argishti Ghazaryan, at the end of 2014, declared an income of $400.000USD. He had purchased a LEXUS 470L vehicle. The judge declared another income in the amount of 10 million AMD as well. The Judge and his wife together have a personal wealth of 210.000.000AMD.
Judge of the Administrative Court, Edvard Nahapetyan enjoyed a personal wealth of 25 million AMD in 2014, $14.000USD and 12.000EURO. He drove a PORSCHE CAYENNE S purchased in 2013 for 8.4 million AMD. His personal wealth is valued at 25.000.000AMD.
Judges named above are only the tip of the iceberg. Restrictions of time and space do not allow us to provide an all-inclusive list that depicts how far and wide corruption managed to invade and undermine the integrity of the judicial system of Armenia.
Of course corruption in Armenia is not strictly the monopoly of The State bureaucracy. NGO executives dip their hands in the honey pot hoping that their position of trust will build an opaque wall around their personality, and render them immune to outside scrutiny and accountability. Unfortunately they don’t succeed in their get-rich-quick scheme, especially when a behavioural addiction such as gambling goes out of control and precipitates their demise.
One famous example in Armenia is the well-known story of the former Executive Director of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund (HAAF), an organization dedicated since 1992 to the ultimate goal of collecting donations worldwide and creating “… an All Armenian network with a sole purpose of ensuring the proportional and sustainable development of Armenia, Artsakh as well as worldwide Armenian communities, based on common identity.”
In July 2018, the Police in Armenia arrested Ara Vardanyan, former Executive Director of the Hayastan-All Armenian Fund, on embezzlement charges. Evidence obtained by prosecutors confirmed that Mr. Vardanyan transferred 14.000.000AMD from the Fund’s account to online gambling sites. Vardanyan was charged with surreptitiously diverting to his personal accounts 130.000.000AMD from the Fund’s coffers.
But on the infamous list of corruption in Armenia, one name- Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, is truly in a league of its own. Visiting his flock in a Bentley car valued at $200.000USD back in 2011 when he first caught the attention of the Armenian media, he became dubbed, with his close friend Pres. Serzh Sarkisian, as The Borgias of Etchmiadzin.
For those who are not familiar with the history of The Borgia family during the Renaissance era in Europe, the following points can be used to clarify why the two Armenian personalities became associated with The Borgias of Italy.
The House of Borgia made it to the pages of history because it gave The Vatican two Popes: Alfons de Borgia, who ruled as Pope Callixtus III from 1455 to 1458, and Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia a.k.a Pope Alexander VI who ruled from 1492 to 1503. Both Popes were nothing but a disgrace to the Catholic Church, and their reigns were constantly besieged by political intrigues, murder plots, incest, and bribery in return for favours bestowed on friends, family members, and business associates of the two Popes.
Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan’s scandal, started with The Bentley car that he always claimed was a “gift”, but did not end there. In April 2020 he was arrested and “… charged by the National Security Service (NSS) with fraud and money laundering stemming from an alleged connection to a convicted businessman and other associates. The charges allege that Kchoyan participated in a defrauding scheme involving offshore companies. “
Contrast the lavish lifestyle of oligarchs, state bureaucrats (excluding a minority of honest individuals), and the gloating stories of Armenian clerics attempting to bring God closer to man and man closer to God, with the stark poverty and malnutrition pervading Armenia today, delivered to our attention by journalist Lara Setrakian in a dispatch from Yerevan, you wonder if there is any ray of hope at the end of the dark tunnel.
Since 2012 we made a snail’s pace progress according to Transparency International (TI), and the ranking Armenia held on the world’s corruption index. In 2012 Armenia had a score of 34. In 2019 Armenia made it to 42/100 - 0 is assigned to a highly corrupt regime, 100 to the most transparent regime. No country in the world holds a score of 100, but many Scandinavian countries are in the 90 range. Armenia’s 2019 ranking is 77/180. Meaning out of 180 countries studied by TI, Armenia is closer to the corrupt regimes of third world countries than the top-tier of Scandinavian countries.
If we are determined to win the next war waged against our external enemies, we need to make a quantum leap in stemming the tide of corruption in Armenia, otherwise victory will remain elusive, and more dire disasters will be heaped on the shoulders of our nation.
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