Yerevan Metro and the Republican Party: Election falsifiers and fishy arrangements

During the management of the former director of Yerevan Metro Paylak Yayloyan, a number of abuses took place in the institution. The Fact Investigation Platform recently revealed that Yayloyan had leased a substantial portion of the premises to his sons for rent or free use.

However, Yerevan Metro has also leased space to a number of other individuals and companies that are somehow affiliated with the management.

Zara LLC

“Zara” LLC has a lease agreement with Yerevan Metro. This company rents the foyer of the Sasuntsi David station – 38.4 m², for which it pays about 134.500 AMD. The lease contract was signed in March 2013 for a term of 25 years.

“Zara” LLC was founded on 25 February 2013, i.e. 18 days before the contract was concluded. Given the fact that the director of the newly established company was Gurgen Yuri Minasyan, who is a Yerevan Metro employee, it seems that the company was specifically created to rent spaces in the building.

At the time of the creation of the company 100% of its shares belonged to the current head of Nubarashen administrative district Telman Tadevosyan. Afterwards, 50% of the shares were divested to Gurgen Minasyan, but the electronic register does not indicate when Minasyan became a shareholder. Gurgen Minasyan has been working at Yerevan Metro since 2008 and currently holds the position of Deputy Head of Marketing and Contracting Department.

In July 2018, Telman Tadevosyan divested the remaining 50% of the shares to Yerem Gevorg Badeyan.

Interestingly, there is no mention of Zara LLC in Telman Tadevosyan’s official biography.

Diadin LLC

Gevorg Badeyan, father of Yerem Badeyan, who owns half of Zara LLC’s shares, has been the director of Diadin LLC since 2012. The company has been leasing more than 130 m² of underground passage of the Republic Square metro station since 2012.

According to the contract, the rent for this area was set at about 262,000 AMD, that is, 2000 AMD/m², and this is strange considering that in the rates set by the Metro Board of Directors in 2011, the minimum rent for this station is 3500 AMD/m² (excluding basement).

It turns out that the lease agreement with Diadin LLC was signed at a substantially lower price than the lease payments set by the Board of Directors, with the result that the Metropolitan lost several million dollars.

Connection between Yerevan Metro and the Republican Party

On 27 July 2005, the Board of Directors leased the 54.4 m² of the company’s communication building at 76 Baghramyan Ave to the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). The rental price was set at 2000 AMD/m². One year later, in 2006, the Board of Directors reduced the rent paid by the Republican Party by half by another decision, and presented Recommendation N14/05-1176 of the Department of Transportation of Yerevan Municipality dated 5 December 2006 as a justification. Thus, starting from 1 January 2007, the tariff for the 54.4 m² allocated to the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) has been set at a rate of 1000 AMD/m². In fact, the Republican Party has paid only 54.400 AMD for the 54.4 m² area adjacent to the Barekamutyun Metro Station for years.

The Fact Investigation Platform tried to understand why the Yerevan Municipality’s Transportation Department had offered Yerevan Metro to lower the tariff for the RPA area, but the municipality informed us that the document has been destroyed due to having no scientific-historical value and losing its practical significance.

Let us remind that at that time the mayor of Yerevan was Yervand Zakharyan.

Republican Party headquarters and employees of Yerevan Metro

Arthur Khurshudyan

Artur Khurshudyan, the manager of the space allocated to the RPA, held a press conference in January this year, accusing former Director Payak Yayloyan of Yerevan Metro of taking away “his own territory”.

Arthur Khurshudyan has been a member of the Republican Party of Armenia since 1995 and a member of the Arabkir Territorial Organization Council. This explains why he was in fact in charge of the area allocated to the RPA by Yerevan Metro and was responsible for it. The latter is known for playing an active role in the national elections, in particular by obstructing the work of journalists, observers and committees and threatening opposition party representatives. Arthur Khurshudyan became more notorious during the constitutional referendum when the latter, a RPA proxy at 5/28 polling station at 76 Baghramyan Ave., obstructed the work of a Hetq correspondent by seizing the journalist’s computer.

A criminal case was initiated by the Special Investigation Service, and Artur Khurshudyan was found guilty under Article 149 (1) of the Criminal Code, i.e. obstructing the exercise of electoral law, the work of electoral commissions, or the exercise of powers of election participants.

By the way, Paylak and Artak Yayloyans applied to court regarding Khurshudyan’s remarks, demanding to deny the statement undermining their honor and dignity and business reputation and to compensate them for moral damage.

As a result, the court ruled to seize 2 million AMD from Arthur Khurshudyan in favor of the Yayloyans, as well as obliged him to deny the allegations made during the press conference.

Artak Yeremyan

Another employee of Yerevan Metro, Artak Yeremyan, Head of the Legal Department, was chairman of the RPA commission at the 5/38 precinct during the constitutional reform referendum.

During the referendum, the latter falsified the election results, which resulted in Artak Yeremyan being charged under Article 150 of the Criminal Code, i.e. falsifying the election or voting results.

Datalex legal information database shows that the court found Artak Yeremyan guilty on 20 May 2016, but the sentence was not imposed.

This circumstance did not prevent Yeremyan from continuing to act as Paylak Yayloyan’s authorized representative and lease the areas belonging to the Yerevan Metro to dozens of businesses.

Artak Yeremyan was dismissed on 15 May 2018.

Thus, for years the management of “Yerevan Metro after Karen Demirchyan” CJSC has been managing the areas belonging to the organization in bad faith. The lease agreements contain risks of conflict of interest, and the contracts signed with the Republican Party have in fact cost Yerevan Metro millions of dollars in lost revenue.