Controversial Contract for Assistance to Artsakh Armenians: Clarifications from the City Administration

The newspaper "Hraparak" reported that "Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan is likely unaware that Artsakh has been ethnically cleansed and completely handed over to Azerbaijan. This is suggested by the contract signed on December 28, 2023, between the Yerevan Municipality and individual entrepreneur Zhanna Musayelyan. According to this contract, 38,246,000 Armenian drams have been transferred to Zhanna Musayelyan for providing hotel services to citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenia from October 1, 2023, to November 10, 2023, due to the blockade of the Lachin Corridor. It turns out that the service provision contract was concluded retroactively, after services were rendered and even after the handover of Artsakh.

The question arises as to what basis Zhanna Musayelyan provided services between October 1, 2023, and November 10, 2023, and why this individual entrepreneur was chosen for such services. This state purchase at a particularly high price was made through a one-person procurement procedure from Zhanna Musayelyan," stated the report.

The municipality informed Auroranews that there is a relevant government decision, according to which communities and regions must carry out the process of accommodating citizens forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh. "From October 1, 2023, to November 10, 2023, the Yerevan community provided living conditions for our compatriots displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh in Yerevan. Naturally, the Yerevan municipality transferred the specified amount to the individual entrepreneur for the services rendered during that period when those people were in the designated place, that is, in the hotel complex," the municipality clarified.

Regarding the fact that the events occurred in September and why the payment was made in December, the municipality detailed: "Those people provided services to our compatriots for a little over a month, after which the relevant invoice and contracts were submitted, based on which the payment was made."