If I Start to Publicize Our 'Warm' Conversations, the Situation Will Become Much Worse. Sarhat Petrosyan

Former head of the State Committee of Cadastre Sarhat Petrosyan stated in an interview with Radio Liberty days ago that Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan's advisor Avetik Eloyan is involved in corruption and factionalism. Today, Sarhat Petrosyan made a post on his Facebook page indicating that Avetik Eloyan still has the chance to resign from his current position and continue working as an ordinary architect. He also suggested that Avetik Eloyan refrain from mentioning their previous warm relations in the future, as he continues to voice only clear and well-known facts, and if he begins publicizing their 'warm' conversations and recommendations, as well as discussions with others and the information subject to publication as the head of the cadastre committee, Avetik Eloyan's situation would become much more severe.

The post is presented below:

“Of course, I have no doubt that public television (and I hope it’s only in public television) continues to actively discuss when I will be summoned to their air to respond to Petros Ghazaryan and Avetik Eloyan. I especially mention Petros' name as he has asked me several times questions, referring to something that I either did not say (why there was no competition), or I said but not regarding Avetik (factionalism). Anyway, despite that some materials have already been submitted to various public, including law enforcement bodies, I will try to 'break through' the media barrier of public television and present some interesting facts.

Avetik Eloyan, along with his brother Zareh Eloyan, opened Eloyan Architects design organization in the USA in 2012, whose official website features only one interior design project in Armenia (the interview discusses several). I assume that Zareh likely does not have the right to design in the USA, but we accept the website's data nonetheless. Avetik returned to Armenia in May or June of 2018 and was appointed Chairman of the Urban Development Committee, only to be dismissed at the beginning of 2019, immediately becoming an advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan. Due to his appointment as the head of the Urban Development Committee, the homepage of the aforementioned website (noting who advised this) states that from now on, Eloyan Architects will not accept orders in Armenia. I wrote this because I believe this will be relevant in the future, as it indicates some implications regarding conflict of interest.

In May 2019, a company with the same name was registered in Armenia, this time in the name of his brother Zareh Eloyan, of course, it could be in the name of a mother-in-law or driver. In this short span of time, the newly established company was delegated the largest projects from the period of Armenia’s independence, and currently the largest ongoing project is a new city spanning over 60 ha being developed near the city of Abovyan by Swiss-Armenian Varden Sermakesh. Incidentally, both this project and a number of Sermakesh's investment programs are coordinated by the office of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

According to rumors, Eloyan Architects is also currently involved in the construction of a new football stadium, a multi-store residential area in the Dalma region, and several other projects (specifically for Petros, as the designer rather than the financial investor). Adding to this is the famous 70-story building project, which was reportedly commissioned at the end of 2017. Although this claim is not credible, if it can be proven that it was commissioned prior to his appointment, then I believe we can be at ease (moreover apologize), but the question still remains how our best interior designer Zareh Eloyan will continue this work without the 'experienced' Avetik Eloyan.

Regarding the number of employees, in August the organization had eight employees (Eloyan states four), not including him or many other outsourced specialists. The most interesting thing is that according to the Urban Development Committee website, Eloyan Architects in Armenia had no design license in July 2019, and as far as I know, Avetik Eloyan personally received a design license in October 2019 along with me. Therefore, unless other facts are presented, we can argue that someone from Eloyan Architects has been engaging in illegal design activities. But let’s leave this for the future.

Other thoughts were also expressed in other parts of the interview, which I will still respond to. By the way, I suggest to Avetik that he refrain from mentioning our previous warm relations in the future because until this moment I have only been voicing open and well-known facts, and if I start to publicize my 'warm' conversations and recommendations with him, as well as discussions with others and information subject to publication as the chairman of the cadastre committee, then his situation will become much heavier. I believe he still has the chance to simply resign from his current position and continue working as an ordinary architect. This would only help Tigran Avinyan, since it is ultimately Avinyan who gets hit due to Eloyan's irresponsible behavior.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more…”