Arush Arushanyan Confirms His Father's Purchase of License Plate 000 OO 00

The mayor of Goris, Arush Arushanyan, confirmed in an interview with Aravot.am that the buyer of the license plate 000 OO 00, sold at auction for "gold" plates on February 28, 2024, is his father, Gadik Arushanyan, the director of "Arantsk" LLC. It was previously reported that seven license plates were sold for 156 million drams.

"I don't know for how many millions it was bought, but yes, it was bought by my father's company. I think it's normal; that same company has been operating for 29 years, paying taxes, and has been one of the first major taxpayers and still is a major taxpayer. Now that this same organization is buying, for example, 5 or 10 cars, some people are debating or criticizing? It's just a number again," said Arushanyan.

The mayor also noted that his father has been acquiring gold plates for his cars since his youth. Responding to criticism that the money could have been directed towards the army or the people of Artsakh, the mayor continued, "There are many people with a lot of money; I don’t know if they’ve done anything or not. But my father has participated in all the wars, and he has invested all our financial resources during the 1990s, during the 44-day war, and during the April events. Besides that, we are faithful people. I won’t dare to call ourselves philanthropists, but by God’s grace, we still... Many also criticize that the money could have built a house for an Artsakh citizen. I want to tell those same critics that it’s not just one house being built; dozens of houses have also been given to Artsakh citizens. Some of us are not engaged in publicity; we speak, and we shouldn’t be criticized.

Regarding what has been done for the state, we can list for months what has been done and how. If the license plate has become a topic of discussion, then why was it not addressed during the 44-day war when hundreds of millions worth of food, bulletproof vests, and tons of fuel were arriving? I am formulating this correctly; those numbers were much larger. Why did no one point that out once? We should not view the purchase of gold plates from a negative perspective; the organization that bought it was acquiring one or several plates even 15 years ago when a good plate was being released."