I am glad that Pedro found so much honesty and courage in himself. Alen Simonyan

Alen and Karlen Simonyan have sent me two letters with the same content, requesting to correct inaccuracies in my February 19 post and to apologize for defamation. The information I provided was what was available to me, based on news sources I had read, and I had no intention of causing harm or defaming anyone. This was stated by Pedro Zaroukian, a member of the Yerevan City Council from the ‘National Progress’ faction on his Facebook page.

“They found two issues in my comments which I would like to correct and clarify. I had no intention of defaming anyone. First, although I mentioned that Karlen Simonyan had been the director of the company during 2021-2024 and not the owner, I was unaware that he resigned from the company on April 12, 2023. Therefore, I want to clarify that Karlen Simonyan has not been the director throughout 2023, and I did not intend to defame him.

“Second, I had read the February 19 article from Armlur titled ‘The company led by Alen Simonyan's brother, which has won hundreds of millions of drams in tenders, is going bankrupt: “Zhoghovurd”’, which prompted my comment: ‘Today Armlur informed that Alen Simonyan's brother has closed his “EuroAsfalt” company through bankruptcy. The question arose why such a highly profitable business is closing, and I checked Armeps.am to see…’”

I want to clarify that I was not aware that Karlen Simonyan is no longer the director of “EuroAsfalt,” and that Karlen Simonyan has not personally filed for bankruptcy. I had no intention of influencing the reputation of Alen and Karlen Simonyan in any way with this inaccuracy,” he wrote.

In turn, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, has also responded to Pedro Zaroukian's post. “Well, dear friends, Yerevan City Council member Pedro Zaroukian has effectively denied his February 19 post, in which he attributed to me and my brother a connection with a road construction company and an incredible number of state tenders awarded.”

“I am glad that Pedro found so much honesty and courage to admit his omission and publicly correct it, which I consider a commendable step. Naturally, the lawsuit becomes unnecessary; all that remains is for those media outlets that declared themselves independent and objective to also refute the claims made with the same diligence as they published that Alen Simonyan and his brother have connections with a road construction company and won hundreds of millions of dollars in tenders, and then bankrupted. Well, independent, free, professional, objective, and not ‘yellow press,’ we will wait for your response,” Alen Simonyan wrote on his Telegram channel.