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In 2013, the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the National Security Council of Armenia made a decision to establish “CSTO Academy” in Armenia. It was intended that the academy should prepare specialists for the CSTO security divisions.
For the given reason the Collective Security Treaty Organization Academy Foundation was established and by the government resolution N 917 the foundation received for gratuitous exploitation the building of school # 72 named after Hrachya Acharyan located at 2 Heratsi Street in Yerevan.
It is noteworthy, that the foundation does not belong to an international organization; instead, it belongs to a physical person Nikolay Bordyuzha. It has nothing to do with the Collective Security Treaty Organization. This subject was discussed in the press before and the name of Arthur Baghdasaryan, the former secretary of the Security Council, was mentioned.
CSTO Academy and the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In 2014 Nikolay Bodyuzha applied to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting the status of an institution acting under an international treaty to be provided to the CSTO Academy before the signing of the agreement on the status and activity of the academy. As it is seen on the Foreign Ministry website, the academy received such status. Currently it is among the diplomatic missions in Armenia as an international organization.
In response to our inquiry, the Foreign Ministry informed that since no contract has been signed so far, a decision was made to refuse the issuance of such status to the foundation.
After obtaining international status, the construction work stopped.
In the same year of 2014, during the meeting with Nikolay Bordyuzha, Artur Baghdasaryan announced that the CSTO Academy would start operating starting in September of the same year, which never happened. In 2015 Bordyuzha announced that the work on the establishment of the academy was ceased.
After a while, the construction work restarted, accompanied by a number of violations. Additional information on this subject can be found here.
Affiliated People
“Russian Lyceum in Armenia” is also located at the same address 2 Heratsi Street and it was also established by the “Collective Security Treaty Organization” Foundation. The charter of “Rusky (Russian) Lyceum” was submitted for approval by the rector of CSTO Academy Mher Shahgeldyan, who is the member of “Orinats Yerkir” faction of the fifth convocation.
The head of the executive body of the “Russian Lyceum in Armenia” Foundation is the acting director Ashot Balyan. The latter occupied the 72nd place in the proportional list of the Armenian Renaissance Party during the 2017 parliamentary elections. Currently the lyceum is run by former MP of the Rule of Law Party (Translator’s note: currently Armenian Renaissance Party) Levon Dokholyan, who has ties of kinship with Hegine Bisharyan, the former faction leader from the same political party.
It is noteworthy that not long after the establishment of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Academy Foundation, the lyceum was renamed and since 2014, it has been functioning under the name “European College in Armenia” Foundation.
In fact, the RA Government gave an entire building in the center of Yerevan as a gift to Artur Baghdasaryan and Nikolay Bordyuzha. Meanwhile the RA Foreign Ministry issued the academy an international political status, whereas currently it has not only failed to serve its purpose but also has become an office place for Rule of Law party’s former MPs.
