Former MP Nephew of Nikol Pashinyan Starts Timber Business in Ukraine

The nephew of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Sipan Pashinyan, who served as an MP from the ruling "My Step" faction from 2019 to 2021, has founded a company in Ukraine last year. Hetq.am reports this.

On September 13, 2022, the company "CherWood" LLC, co-owned by Narek Ghazaryan and Sipan Pashinyan, was registered in the city of Cherkasy. The owners hold equal shares in the company, split 50-50. The company's statutory capital is 25,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, and its director is Arthur Ghazaryan, the brother of Narek Ghazaryan.

The name "CherWood" is not a random choice; it combines "Cherkasy" and the English word "wood," suggesting that the company's activities are connected to timber processing. Indeed, according to the Ukrainian registry, the main business of Pashinyan and Ghazaryan's company involves the sawing and milling of timber, alongside activities such as producing plywood and panels, constructing wooden structures, manufacturing wooden containers, and producing various timber and horticulture products.

Notably, the Ukrainian registry lists Sipan Pashinyan's nationality and place of registration as Ukraine. His and the Ghazaryan brothers' names are associated with an apartment building on Dnipro Heroes Street in Cherkasy. The same address is registered for the "CherWood" LLC.

The Ghazaryan clan is well-known not only in Cherkasy but across the entire Cherkasy region. Narek and Arthur Ghazaryan are the sons of Petros Ghazaryan, brother of entrepreneurs Andranik and Frunze Ghazaryan. Andranik Telmani Ghazaryan is also the honorary consul of Armenia in Cherkasy. Arthur Ghazaryan is the president of the "Nadia" group of companies, which operates in various sectors including construction and real estate, trade, food production, poultry farming, pig farming, horticulture, and crop production.

Business partners of the Ghazaryans include the Tkachenkos, businesspeople, one of whom, Yuri Tkachenk, was the head of the Cherkasy region from 2014 to 2018. In the poultry business, David Manukyan, son of former Armenian ambassador to Ukraine Andranik Manukyan, who served from 2010 to 2018 and was an MP from the "Tsarukyan" faction, is also a partner of the Tkachenkos and Ghazaryans.

34-year-old Narek Ghazaryan is not only involved in family business but also in the political life of Cherkasy, where he is a member of the city council and leader of one of its factions. Narek Ghazaryan first became a member of the city council in 2010 at age 21.

The connection between Sipan Pashinyan, an Armenian citizen registered in Ijevan, and the Ghazaryans, who live and operate in Cherkasy, is not coincidental, as they are also from Ijevan. Media reports indicate that Andranik Ghazaryan and Nikol Pashinyan were from the same neighborhood in Ijevan. They are also contemporaries, with A. Ghazaryan being 53 and N. Pashinyan 48 years old.

Notably, in 1999, A. Ghazaryan renounced his Armenian citizenship, with his application approved by then-President Robert Kocharyan. According to his own accounts, 34-year-old Narek Ghazaryan was also born in Ijevan but moved to Ukraine with his family at the age of five, acquiring Ukrainian citizenship.

In 2012, under the auspices of Andranik, Frunze, and Petros Ghazaryan, the St. Savior Church was opened and consecrated in Ijevan in memory of their father. In 2014, with the financial support of the Ghazaryan brothers, a children's playground was opened in Ijevan. At that time, the mayor of Ijevan, Vardan Ghalumyan, reported that the Ghazaryans financed the renovation of the city's park lighting, the railings on Yerevan Street, and the sidewalks on Aslanyan Street. The Ijevan council awarded the honorary title of Ijevan resident to F. Ghazaryan, a year prior to which A. Ghazaryan received the same award.

Following the political changes in 2018, Nikol Pashinyan's government initiated a series of conferences, including the "My Step for Tavush" investment conference held in Ijevan in September 2018, attended by Andranik Ghazaryan. Subsequently, he invited then-Governor of Tavush, Vahe Ghalumyan, to Cherkasy to familiarize him with his economy and establish agreements to start projects in Armenia.

Ghazaryan expressed intentions to establish a modern pig farm in Tavush for 630 mother pigs, which would be connected to small farms supported by the mother pigs. After raising, the small farms would only return the cost of feed, keeping all profit.

According to media reports, Andranik Ghazaryan acquired the namesake hotel in Ijevan, built during Soviet times, at a very low price, reportedly benefiting from his close ties to N. Pashinyan, and in 2021 converted it into a residential building, claiming to offer the constructed apartments at a 30% discount to Armenians in Ukraine.

In the summer of 2020, MP Sipan Pashinyan announced that discussions with businessman Andranik Ghazaryan living abroad had led to plans to restore all old wooden bus stops in Ijevan with his support.

Interestingly, in July 2021, while still an MP, Sipan Pashinyan attended a meeting in Ukraine with Ambassador Vladimir Karapetian and then-Governor of Cherkasy Alexander Skichko, where they discussed collaboration opportunities under the memorandum of intent signed in 2009 between Cherkasy and Tavush regions concerning economic and cultural cooperation.

It is also notable that the current head of the Armenia-Ukraine friendship group in Parliament is the nephew of Prime Minister Pashinyan, MP Hrachya Hakobyan. Both he and Sipan Pashinyan were members of the Armenia-Ukraine friendship group in the previous Parliament.

It should also be noted that Sipan Pashinyan's father, Artak Pashinyan, has also been involved in business. In September 2020, the Prime Minister's elder brother leased two plots of land from the Armenian Forest State Fund in the territory of Tavush's Sevkar forest, covering 0.5 ha and 0.2 ha. In an interview with Hetq, A. Pashinyan stated that the area was leased for tourism purposes, with cabins installed for overnight stays.

Registered in September 2020, "Artak Pashinyan Vova" LLC is reported to be engaged in hotel services according to the State Revenue Committee.