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FROM LAKE TO TABLE: ARMENIAN MP BUILDS FISH MARKET IN TBILISI
Kristine Aghalaryan
09:35, March 3, 2015
Vardan Ayvazyan, a Republican Party MP in Armenia's parliament who
heads the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, is building a huge
fish market in Tbilisi.
The plant, located not far from the center of the Georgian capital,
is known as a restaurant hub.
In September 2011, Ayvazyan founded a company called Unicom of which he
was the sole shareholder. According to the Georgian State Registry,
Vardan Ayvazyan registered his company shares in the name of his
son Souren Ayvazyan. This was after the 2012 Georgian parliamentary
elections, and it appears that he was concerned that his assets would
be at risk with the change of power. His friend, onetime Minister of
Internal Affairs Ivane Merabishvili, had been jailed, and Ayvazyan
was afraid that he too might be persecuted as a result.
Vardan Ayvazyan, born in the Tabatzghour village of Georgia's
Samtskhe-Javakhk region, leased a lake there and launched a fish
farming enterprise. (The video is in Georgian with Armenian subtitles).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnlRNTvPJTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5sklYBVonE
Local residents say that Ayvazyan founded the business with Ivane
Merabishvili, and it seems that the fish are to be sold at the new
Tbilisi center being built. They claim that Ayvazyan also wants to
house a fish restaurant at the center.
Construction has been underway for the past three years. The center,
according to a work permit at the site, is scheduled to open this
September. But construction has been at a standstill for quite
some time.
After three years, fish market remains unfinished
When we visited the site security guard Aleksandr Tabidze said that
work would renew in March.
He said that the center would house a fancy restaurant. The center
will occupy 1,200 square meters of the 8,000 square meter site.
Tabidze said that the site's market value is 4 million Lari (US$1.9
million).
Fish market's finished look
The security guard knows that an Armenian, in his words a "respectable
MP of the Armenian parliament" is building the complex. Tabidze said
that Vardan Ayvazyan visits the site often and that he personally
knows him.
Nino Bakradze contributed to this article
http://hetq.am/eng/news/58773/from-lake-to-table-armenian-mp-builds-fish-market-in-tbilisi.html
Kristine Aghalaryan
09:35, March 3, 2015
Vardan Ayvazyan, a Republican Party MP in Armenia's parliament who
heads the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, is building a huge
fish market in Tbilisi.
The plant, located not far from the center of the Georgian capital,
is known as a restaurant hub.
In September 2011, Ayvazyan founded a company called Unicom of which he
was the sole shareholder. According to the Georgian State Registry,
Vardan Ayvazyan registered his company shares in the name of his
son Souren Ayvazyan. This was after the 2012 Georgian parliamentary
elections, and it appears that he was concerned that his assets would
be at risk with the change of power. His friend, onetime Minister of
Internal Affairs Ivane Merabishvili, had been jailed, and Ayvazyan
was afraid that he too might be persecuted as a result.
Vardan Ayvazyan, born in the Tabatzghour village of Georgia's
Samtskhe-Javakhk region, leased a lake there and launched a fish
farming enterprise. (The video is in Georgian with Armenian subtitles).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnlRNTvPJTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5sklYBVonE
Local residents say that Ayvazyan founded the business with Ivane
Merabishvili, and it seems that the fish are to be sold at the new
Tbilisi center being built. They claim that Ayvazyan also wants to
house a fish restaurant at the center.
Construction has been underway for the past three years. The center,
according to a work permit at the site, is scheduled to open this
September. But construction has been at a standstill for quite
some time.
After three years, fish market remains unfinished
When we visited the site security guard Aleksandr Tabidze said that
work would renew in March.
He said that the center would house a fancy restaurant. The center
will occupy 1,200 square meters of the 8,000 square meter site.
Tabidze said that the site's market value is 4 million Lari (US$1.9
million).
Fish market's finished look
The security guard knows that an Armenian, in his words a "respectable
MP of the Armenian parliament" is building the complex. Tabidze said
that Vardan Ayvazyan visits the site often and that he personally
knows him.
Nino Bakradze contributed to this article
http://hetq.am/eng/news/58773/from-lake-to-table-armenian-mp-builds-fish-market-in-tbilisi.html