800-Dollar Deposit Lost: Boxed Fighter Who Renounced Armenian Citizenship Appeals to Prime Minister

Dear fellow citizens, first of all, I would like to thank everyone for their comments related to my recent statement. I love my homeland and my Armenian people very much, and wherever I am, this fact will always remain. I am not offended by those who approached my statement critically.

This was stated by boxer Erik Israelian on his Facebook page, addressing his post about renouncing Armenian citizenship and moving to another country.

“But I want to share important information with you. Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Karen Giloyan has lied,” he wrote, providing details. “Months ago, Giloyan visited my home, where I reside. He stated that there was no need to raise a fuss or give interviews to the media, and that the Ministry would support me in acquiring an apartment, including the down payment. Giloyan suggested that I start looking for an apartment. I immediately did that. I found an apartment (in the secondary market), paid the landlord 800 dollars so that the rest could be formalized through the bank to be deducted from my salary. However, when I called K. Giloyan after all this, he told me that there was no money to give, and that I should go to UCOM for the money. It remains unclear what connection that company had or why they should give me money. It is obvious that he did all this to prevent me from making a fuss, but now it is time to give names to what has occurred and to the issues at hand.”

Israelian stated that the Ministry had not given him 4 million 600 thousand drams. “I am appealing to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, hoping that he will be informed in detail about what has happened and that he will not allow people in the state apparatus and in the field of sports who are, to put it mildly, liars. Because of whom my provided apartment deposit was lost…” he wrote.