Businessman Gagik Tsarukian has triggered bitter recriminations between his opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance by accusing Yerevan’s mayor of obstructing his investment projects.
BHK lawmakers walked out of the Armenian parliament on Wednesday after trading insults with their pro-government colleagues strongly supporting Mayor Hayk Marutian.
Tsarukian charged on Tuesday that Marutian showed a lack of respect for his wealthy business partners from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when they visited Armenia in April and offered to build a luxury hotel in downtown Yerevan.He also lambasted the municipal administration for freezing the construction of another five-star hotel which he launched in early 2018.
Marutian, who is a close associate of Pashinian, dismissed the accusations in an interview with Armenian Public Television aired late on Tuesday. He said the UAE investors wanted to buy land in the city center and he suggested that they acquire it from private entities, rather that the municipal authorities. He cited a lack of vacant space in central Yerevan which has undergone massive redevelopment since the early 2000s.
The mayor also insisted that work on Tsarukian’s hotel was halted last year primarily because of a court injunction resulting from a lawsuit filed by the private owners of an adjacent building. Besides, he said, the tycoon never received a building permission for the high-rise from the municipality.
Tsarukian, who leads Armenia’s largest parliamentary opposition force, sought to disprove this claim on Wednesday. He showed journalists a copy of what he described as a construction permit signed by Marutian in April.
The mayor’s spokesman, Hakob Karapetian, was quick to clarify that the document brandished by the BHK leader is an authorization to design, not build, the hotel.
Armenia -- Deputies from the Prosperous Armenia Party boycott the government's question-and-answer session in parliament, Yerevan, December 4, 2019.
The row quickly escalated to the parliament floor. A BHK deputy, Tigran Urikhanian, questioned the Yerevan mayor’s competence and “organizational skills,” drawing furious responses from several lawmakers representing My Step.
“I would advise Mr. Tsarukian to fire all registered and non-registered people paid by him because they are wasting his money,” said My Step’s Kristine Poghosian.
Another My Step deputy, Arpi Davoyan, mocked Tsarukian’s public speaking skills. “For two days I’ve been trying to make sense of what that man said and talked about yesterday,” she said.
“If you don’t understand an interview, look for the problem inside yourself,” shot back Naira Zohrabian, a top aide to Tsarukian. “This is simply disgusting. I’ve been a parliamentarian for 12 years and can say that the parliament has never been a platform for such low-grade, cheap debates.”
Zohrabian and other BHK deputies then walked out of the parliament in protest, boycotting the Armenian government’s question-and-answer session in the National Assembly held later in the day. Arman Abovian, the number two figure in the BHK’s parliamentary group, blamed the pro-government majority for the “political boycott.”
Tsarukian’s party supported Pashinian-led mass protests that toppled the country’s former government in April 2018. It also helped Pashinian become prime minister and joined his first cabinet formed in May 2018. The prime minister fired his ministers affiliated with BHK in October 2018, accusing the BHK of secretly collaborating with the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia.
Tensions between the BHK and Pashinian’s political team rose again in April this year. The parliament majority threatened to strip Tsarukian of his parliament seat, saying that he illegally combines his political activities with business. The tycoon denied directly engaging in entrepreneurial activities.