Stay Away From Me and My Family: Arpine Hovhannisyan

Former Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia, Arpine Hovhannisyan, wrote on her Facebook page: "Today, a publication from the pseudo-opposition newspaper of a complete mercenary of Nikol Pashinyan, Arman Babajanyan, addressed the fact that my mother owns property worth 40 million drams. Afterwards, the newspaper made a dramatic revelation that this property is not mentioned in my declarations for 2012-2013, but in 2016 my mother received income from the sale of some unknown property. It is natural that ignorance of basic legislative regulations (is it a scandal?) should lead to incorrect conclusions and create enthusiasm that they have uncovered one of the greatest corruption schemes in the modern history of Armenia. I am forced to bring disappointment. My mother’s property worth 40 million (sounds very emotional, doesn’t it?) is not reflected in my declarations for 2012-2013 for the simple reason that it was acquired long before I held any position, moreover, even back when my mother herself was not the head of the State Revenue Committee (before 2006). Since, according to legislative regulations, a cohabiting parent submits only an annual declaration and shows not what they have in general, but the sale or acquisition of property during that year, it is clear that property acquired decades ago could not appear in my mother’s declarations for 2012-2013. The newspaper was right about one thing: income was indeed received from the sale of property in 2016, but the newspaper did not take into account the fact that it was the income from THE SAME PROPERTY that was acquired decades ago. Expecting any objectivity in the case of Arman Babajanyan would be naive. This is a media business belonging to a number one trader of emotions. If the lack of professionalism can be considered correctable in some places, then your ethical problem is eternal and will never be fixed. You will not be able to create the image of a corrupt person out of me, but you have a lot to think about. When talking about millions, start with the listing of your multi-million dollar properties and media businesses (by the way, in dollars). P.S. Stay away from me and my family."