Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanyan Arrested

On September 14, 2021, following a series of extensive investigative and procedural actions by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia (RA), significant evidence has emerged concerning Mamikon Aslanyan (M.A.), who served as the mayor of Vanadzor from October 10, 2016, to October 10, 2021. He is implicated in a number of acts demonstrating abuse of his official powers and committing official forgery for personal motives.

The Investigative Committee reports that substantial evidence has been gathered suggesting that M.A. unlawfully changed the designated purpose of land plots located at addresses Narekatsi 1/1 and 1/1-6 in Vanadzor, which have a total area of 0.94955 hectares. Despite the inter-agency commission returning a proposal to change the land’s designated purpose three times for revisions, M.A. inexplicably exceeded his authority by changing the designated purpose of these plots from public residential land to land intended for energy, transportation, communication, and communal infrastructure. Such actions resulted in significant damage to the rights and legal interests of the state and the community.

Additionally, during the aforementioned period, M.A. unlawfully transferred the ownership of a 0.0999-hectare plot of land located at Usanoghakan St. 14/1-10, which was classified as public green space and was not allowed to be transferred under the provisions of Article 60 of the RA Land Code. He did this based on personal and group interests, abusing his official powers and including false data in his respective decisions. A fraudulent document was subsequently created and signed by M.A., asserting that the aforementioned land plot was not included in the list of restrictions outlined in Article 60 of the RA Land Code. This led to the registration of ownership by the Vanadzor municipality for the specified plot, with its designated purpose recorded as residential and functional use as public construction.

Following this, M.A. included the mentioned plot in a list of lands to be sold by the community, organizing an auction at the Vanadzor city hall and selling the specified area for 2,007,700 AMD. In another instance, he again unlawfully transferred ownership of another plot located at Usanoghakan St. 14/1-9, which was also subject to the limitations specified in Article 60, to a citizen based on personal and group interests, and sold it for 5,284,120 AMD.

Moreover, another occurrence surfaced indicating that M.A. failed to adhere to his obligations to oversee the intended use of community land plots and allowed his close associate's mother, V.Q., to use a plot at Narekatsi St. 3/3 for unauthorized purposes. Since 2017, he facilitated the sale or donation of parcels in that area for the purpose of burials, despite being notified by the Lori Provincial Administration about the existence of cemeteries in that location.

The actions of Vanadzor’s former mayor M.A. have resulted in considerable damage to the rights and legal interests of the community, depriving the public and state of the opportunity to use the aforementioned areas according to their designated purposes. Furthermore, the sanitary hygiene standards concerning the required distance of cemeteries from residential buildings have not been upheld.

Based on sufficient corroborating evidence, M.A. has been involved as a defendant under Part 3 of Article 309, Part 2 of Article 308 (in two episodes), and Part 1 of Article 314, as well as Part 1 of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code.