An Armenian regional newspaper claimed to be systematically bullied by individuals linked to the country’s largest mining company after a car belonging to it was set on fire early on Tuesday.
Photographs posted by the “Syuniats Yerkir” newspaper based in Kapan, the administrative center of the southeastern Syunik province, showed that it was partly destroyed by what its editor, Samvel Aleksanian, described as a deliberate arson attack.
“I regard that as a crime committed because of our professional activities,” Aleksanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Aleksanian pointed the finger at Vahe Hakobian, a former Syunik governor, and other influential persons thought to be close to the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), an industrial giant located in the nearby town of Kajaran. He said his paper has been at odds with the company because it has consistently tried to ascertain who its real owners are.
“In the last two years there have been numerous incidents involving our newspaper and myself but none of them has been solved,” said Aleksanian. In particular, he claimed to have been physically assaulted outside his Kapan office in August.
“This latest attack was the continuation of the previous ones,” the editor went on. “We raise issues which hidden shareholders of the Kajaran plant don’t like.”
Hakobian, who was sacked as Syunik governor shortly after last spring’s “velvet revolution” in Armenia, flatly denied the allegations. “The media outlet mentioned by you has for years spread untrue and slanderous reports and even personal insults but we are following only the legal path,” he said, pointing to over a dozen libel suits filed against “Syuniats Yerkir” by him and senior ZCMC executives.
The former governor also suggested that Aleksanian might have himself burned down the newspaper car in “yet another attempt at self-promotion.”
ZCMC, which employs more than 4,000 people, was privatized in 2004 at a relatively modest price of $132 million. A German metals group, Cronimet, gained a 75 percent stake in the industrial giant at the time.
The rest of ZCMC is controlled by at least two obscure Armenian firms. Ownership of those firms has long been a subject of speculation in Armenia, with some local commentators and opposition politicians linking them to former President Serzh Sarkisian or his predecessor Robert Kocharian.
Hakobian worked as a senior ZCMC executive before Sarkisian appointed him as Syunik governor in 2016. In early 2017, he also became the head of the regional branch of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
According to the Hetq.am investigative publication, Hakobian holds a 10 percent stake in Cronimet Metal Trading CIS, an apparent subsidiary of ZCMC’s largest nominal shareholder.
Hakobian already found himself in hot water shortly after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sacked him as Syunik governor last summer. An Anglo-American gold mining company, Lydian International, accused him of involvement in the continuing disruption of its operations in Armenia. Lydian released a short video that purportedly showed the driver of a car used by Hakobian delivering food to several dozen protesters blockading the Amulsar gold deposit developed by it.
Hakobian denied that. He claimed that the videotaped car was driven by a ZCMC employee who accidentally met one of his relatives on a highway near Amulsar.
Lydian’s allegations were taken seriously by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian. He said in July that they are a cause for “deep concern” and require an “objective and consistent examination.”
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