How Artak Tovmasyan Became Close to Aghvan Hovhannisyan

Artak Tovmasyan, the head of the "Tovmasyan" charitable foundation and owner of the "Dvin" hotel, has decided to engage in politics due to the prevailing situation in the country, as the announcement of capitulation on November 9 has led to a troubling atmosphere. The "Zhoghovurd" newspaper interviewed Artak Tovmasyan on several issues:

– Mr. Tovmasyan, you are close to the former Prosecutor General of Armenia, Aghvan Hovhannisyan, while Gagik Jhangiryan recently stated that injustices in our country began with the "Hovhannisyan trials." You criticize the current government. How do you comment on this assessment related to your close associate?

- You need to understand that I have not always lived in Yerevan, meaning I do not currently know how my friend conducts his professional work; the assessment can be given by society or his professional cadre. I do not interfere in their affairs, nor do I interfere in the matters handled by the Prosecutor General or the investigators of the Special Investigation Service, and I have never intervened. Therefore, those assessments are more professional evaluations that, besides words, need to have bases; for this reason, I cannot provide any commentary related to that.

I can only say that through my communication with him, whether it is from being a godfather or undertaking relevant charitable steps, this will neither be my own nor perhaps objective in the frameworks I know this person. In those frameworks, I can say he is a polite, intelligent, educated individual with a non-standard way of thinking.

– You are aware, aren’t you, that Armenia's external debt is nearing $9 billion, while Nikol Pashinyan stated 2.5 years ago that we would repay it penny by penny, but despite this, the debt has not decreased but increased? How will this affect the country’s economy and ordinary consumers? What solutions do you propose?

- It has a very negative impact on the economy and, doubly negative on consumers, because consumers expect the government to take decisive steps, and they will feel those benefits immediately. As we can see, these are mainly populist statements; in due time, it was said that a woman loves with her ears, meaning you must speak good words to make her feel flattered—what you do may become secondary. Now the same comparison can be made. I’m not going to, understanding the economic situation and not possessing all the exact numbers, state specifically what I will do or should do to pull out of it. However, familiarizing myself with the numbers, of course, there is no unsolvable situation; it's just that there are unconventional methods for getting out of that situation, and you also need to add the time period during which you will have the opportunity to take steps to pull the country out of that difficult situation. I am confident that these exists and will continue to exist, it just depends on the time, whether it will be half a year from now, or tomorrow—that will determine the model and how you can act. I can say that dragging things out every day, with this government remaining in power, becomes a problem for solving months and years of issues. It is crucial that unprofessional people do not remain in their places; it would save our country from difficult situations sooner rather than later.

– Mr. Tovmasyan, is your goal to obtain a few mandates in the new parliament? Do you want to become the new Tsarukyan?

- Everyone has their place in life. I do not understand how you are framing it—do you want to become the new Tsarukyan? I am Tovmasyan; Tsarukyan has his own path which he has walked, Tsarukyan has his own works, and Tovmasyan has his own. If it were specific, I would not put comparisons between Tovmasyans and Tsarukyans; they are definitely different, they can share tendencies towards homeland or charity, but Tovmasyan is Tovmasyan, and Tsarukyan is Tsarukyan, which you know better than I do.”

This was reported by "Zhoghovurd" newspaper.