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Flash's Good Reputation is in Danger
October 3, 2005
Ararat Tsovyan feeds his family by repairing eyeglasses. His shop at 15
Pushkin Street was demolished on government orders, as part of the work on
Hyusisayin (Northern) Avenue. He was given the dram equivalent of US$ 8200
as compensation, as well as the right to rent a 20-square-meter property
adjacent to 15a Pushkin, in order to open another shop.
The decision (no. 2320-A, dated 01.12.2003) of Yerevan Mayor Yervand
Zakharyan allowed Tsovyan to receive a ten-year lease for 20 sq. m. of
property adjacent to 15a Pushkin. He followed procedure and signed a
contract to rent the property and received the lease after which he obtained
permission to start building, designed the project plan, agreed it with
authorities and began construction. "During construction, some people
approached my builders a number of times and said, 'Don't build it in vain.
If it's in Flash's way, it'll be torn down anyway," said Tsovyan.
The property allocated to Tsovyan is also adjacent to 19,Pushkin a building
which now belongs to Flash ltd. The company bought the building after
offering compensation to its residents, demolished it, and is now
constructing a new building for Armcapbank, which it owns.
Flash ltd. is one of Armenia's largest importers of petroleum products.
According to the data of the Competition Conservation Commission, Flash is
in second place among petroleum product importers, providing 25-28% of the
diesel available in Armenia. Barsegh Beglaryan is the founder and president
of Flash. More than 1/4 of the petroleum market belongs to this company and
it has more than 200 employees. Besides this, Flash is the main shareholder
in the Nairit chemical plant. Barsegh Beglaryan, who also owns Flash, has
started doing business in Nagorno-Karabakh as well.
On March 10, 2005, equipment belonging Flash ltd. was used to demolish
Tsovyan's half-built shop. "They tore it down, used some of the material to
build toilets for their laborers, and took the rest away in broad daylight,"
said Tsovyan.
Flash offered a different description of what had happened - "We didn't tear
down his shop, the office of the mayor did. When we were tearing down the
building in order to build another one, Samvel Danielyan, the head architect
of Yerevan, was present, as were the heads of two City Hall departments [he
couldn't remember which departments] and two policemen. The City Hall
representatives said that Tsovyan's shop had to be torn down too, because
the mayor had taken a wrong decision in this regard - architecturally
speaking, such land allocation is unsound - besides which the shop was not
in accordance with the blueprints. So, it was the mayor's office that tore
it down, not Flash. It's just that City Hall asked for our excavator, and we
provided it, which is why the pictures show Flash equipment being used,"
said Moushegh Elchyan, vice-president of Flash ltd., "Now Tsovyan can come
and build his shop, we don't want his land at all, but we will cause
problems, because we don't like that structure."
Contrary to Elchyan's assurances that they don't want Tsovyan's land, it
turned out that the atrium of the future bank had already been built there,
and a parking lot is planned below it. Elchyan claimed that after the shop
was demolished, the mayor's office asked Flash to help Tsovyan in order to
keep things quiet, since it was in Flash's best interests as well to keep
that land free.
"If Tsovyan's shop had indeed strayed from the original blueprints, then he
should have been by fined or warned by City Hall or the State Department of
Construction and told to bring things back to plan. But that was not the
case. I've conducted a legal investigation at the mayor's office and
discovered that Tsovyan had the necessary documents to build his shop and
that it was not torn down by City Hall," said Karen Mejlumyan, Tsovyan's
lawyer.
Flash ltd. insists that Tsovyan's shop was torn down on the orders of head
architect Samvel Danielyan as well as two heads of department at City Hall,
and in their presence. In reply to a written query, G. Khangeldyan, the head
of the Department of Construction and Land Supervision at City Hall, said
that the mayor's office had not ordered the demolition of Tsovyan's shop.
Besides this, an investigation by the prosecutors' offices in the Central
and Nork-Marash municipalities also proved that City Hall could have no
legal basis to order the demolition of that shop. One can assume the
following based on all this - either Flash vice-president Elchyan has
committed slander against the high-ranking City Hall officials or head
architect Danielyan has abused his position by deeming that legally
constructed structure to be "architecturally unsound", just to serve Flash's
interests. In the abundance of illegal and "architecturally unsound"
structures in Yerevan, the head architect picked this legal half-built shop.
It is a point of interest as to whether the head architect was authorized to
declare the mayor Zakharyan's judgment wrong and verbally overrule a written
decision, or whether the mayor would tolerate such impertinence if it did
not serve the interests of Flash ltd.
Tsovyan awaits the decision of the Prosecutor General. A decision has to be
taken as to whether to file a criminal case or dismiss the charges. In case
of dismissal, Tsovyan is preparing to appeal the case to a superior body or
the court of review.
"Flash had offered Tsovyan land in a different location, or a compensatory
sum of money, but he refused. Now we offer nothing. City Hall tore it down,
let City Hall compensate his loss," insisted Elchyan. He is probably trying
not contadict Flash's slogan- "Our good reputation is our dearest capital."
Aghavni Yeghiazaryan
http://hetq.am/eng/society/0510-flash.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Flash's Good Reputation is in Danger
October 3, 2005
Ararat Tsovyan feeds his family by repairing eyeglasses. His shop at 15
Pushkin Street was demolished on government orders, as part of the work on
Hyusisayin (Northern) Avenue. He was given the dram equivalent of US$ 8200
as compensation, as well as the right to rent a 20-square-meter property
adjacent to 15a Pushkin, in order to open another shop.
The decision (no. 2320-A, dated 01.12.2003) of Yerevan Mayor Yervand
Zakharyan allowed Tsovyan to receive a ten-year lease for 20 sq. m. of
property adjacent to 15a Pushkin. He followed procedure and signed a
contract to rent the property and received the lease after which he obtained
permission to start building, designed the project plan, agreed it with
authorities and began construction. "During construction, some people
approached my builders a number of times and said, 'Don't build it in vain.
If it's in Flash's way, it'll be torn down anyway," said Tsovyan.
The property allocated to Tsovyan is also adjacent to 19,Pushkin a building
which now belongs to Flash ltd. The company bought the building after
offering compensation to its residents, demolished it, and is now
constructing a new building for Armcapbank, which it owns.
Flash ltd. is one of Armenia's largest importers of petroleum products.
According to the data of the Competition Conservation Commission, Flash is
in second place among petroleum product importers, providing 25-28% of the
diesel available in Armenia. Barsegh Beglaryan is the founder and president
of Flash. More than 1/4 of the petroleum market belongs to this company and
it has more than 200 employees. Besides this, Flash is the main shareholder
in the Nairit chemical plant. Barsegh Beglaryan, who also owns Flash, has
started doing business in Nagorno-Karabakh as well.
On March 10, 2005, equipment belonging Flash ltd. was used to demolish
Tsovyan's half-built shop. "They tore it down, used some of the material to
build toilets for their laborers, and took the rest away in broad daylight,"
said Tsovyan.
Flash offered a different description of what had happened - "We didn't tear
down his shop, the office of the mayor did. When we were tearing down the
building in order to build another one, Samvel Danielyan, the head architect
of Yerevan, was present, as were the heads of two City Hall departments [he
couldn't remember which departments] and two policemen. The City Hall
representatives said that Tsovyan's shop had to be torn down too, because
the mayor had taken a wrong decision in this regard - architecturally
speaking, such land allocation is unsound - besides which the shop was not
in accordance with the blueprints. So, it was the mayor's office that tore
it down, not Flash. It's just that City Hall asked for our excavator, and we
provided it, which is why the pictures show Flash equipment being used,"
said Moushegh Elchyan, vice-president of Flash ltd., "Now Tsovyan can come
and build his shop, we don't want his land at all, but we will cause
problems, because we don't like that structure."
Contrary to Elchyan's assurances that they don't want Tsovyan's land, it
turned out that the atrium of the future bank had already been built there,
and a parking lot is planned below it. Elchyan claimed that after the shop
was demolished, the mayor's office asked Flash to help Tsovyan in order to
keep things quiet, since it was in Flash's best interests as well to keep
that land free.
"If Tsovyan's shop had indeed strayed from the original blueprints, then he
should have been by fined or warned by City Hall or the State Department of
Construction and told to bring things back to plan. But that was not the
case. I've conducted a legal investigation at the mayor's office and
discovered that Tsovyan had the necessary documents to build his shop and
that it was not torn down by City Hall," said Karen Mejlumyan, Tsovyan's
lawyer.
Flash ltd. insists that Tsovyan's shop was torn down on the orders of head
architect Samvel Danielyan as well as two heads of department at City Hall,
and in their presence. In reply to a written query, G. Khangeldyan, the head
of the Department of Construction and Land Supervision at City Hall, said
that the mayor's office had not ordered the demolition of Tsovyan's shop.
Besides this, an investigation by the prosecutors' offices in the Central
and Nork-Marash municipalities also proved that City Hall could have no
legal basis to order the demolition of that shop. One can assume the
following based on all this - either Flash vice-president Elchyan has
committed slander against the high-ranking City Hall officials or head
architect Danielyan has abused his position by deeming that legally
constructed structure to be "architecturally unsound", just to serve Flash's
interests. In the abundance of illegal and "architecturally unsound"
structures in Yerevan, the head architect picked this legal half-built shop.
It is a point of interest as to whether the head architect was authorized to
declare the mayor Zakharyan's judgment wrong and verbally overrule a written
decision, or whether the mayor would tolerate such impertinence if it did
not serve the interests of Flash ltd.
Tsovyan awaits the decision of the Prosecutor General. A decision has to be
taken as to whether to file a criminal case or dismiss the charges. In case
of dismissal, Tsovyan is preparing to appeal the case to a superior body or
the court of review.
"Flash had offered Tsovyan land in a different location, or a compensatory
sum of money, but he refused. Now we offer nothing. City Hall tore it down,
let City Hall compensate his loss," insisted Elchyan. He is probably trying
not contadict Flash's slogan- "Our good reputation is our dearest capital."
Aghavni Yeghiazaryan
http://hetq.am/eng/society/0510-flash.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress