Recently, it has become harder to get information regarding what is going on inside Samvel Babayan’s “Dashink” political party than getting information about what goes on in the ARF, which is known for its closed system.
Things have started to get interesting in “Dashink”. Some things started to change after the proportional electoral list was published. Firstly, a couple of weeks ago, there were rumors flying around about the arrest of one of the members of the “Dashink” political party council and that Samvel Babayan had also been taken to the National Security Service… The members of “Dashink” were unreachable for a couple of days and it was impossible to get any information; when we finally were able to reach them, they refused to give concrete answers. After this strange story, leader of “Dashink” S. Babayan removed his name from the majority electoral list in the 37th precinct and explained that with not too convincing reasons, claiming that he did that under the pressure of the presses that interpreted the competition between Samvel Babayan and Sashik Sargsyan (Serge Sargsyan’s brother) as a personal conflict between the two. Rumor had it that another reason for Babayan removing his candidacy was that former mayor of Goris Samvel Harutyunyan, who is also nominated in the same precinct, called on Babayan to remove his candidacy for his benefit. This call was made by many other oppositionists. Samvel Babayan went along with this and removed his candidacy for the benefit of Harutyunyan. Amongst all this confusion, it suddenly turns out that there have been nine changes made in the “Dashink” proportional electoral list. Interestingly, political party council member Andranik Tevanyan’s canididacy was taken out (he was 8th on the list). Mr. Tevanyan refused to tell “168 Hours” what had happened. In any case, apparently, a separate team is forming within “Dashink”. It should be noted that a couple of days before the strange events, “168 Hours” had received an anonymous letter in Russian entitled “That strange “oppositionist”. The letter was about Tevanyan. According to the author, Tevanyan had chosen to be out of the public eye since the founding of the party and remain under the shade of Samvel Babayan. The author of the letter claims that Andranik Tevanyan is the grandchild of the brother of Javakhk-based Russian businessman Norik Tevanyan whom Andranik Tevanyan and his family owe for what they have now.
“Andranik Tevanyan actively works in favor of the Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan,” as stated in the letter. According to the author, this is interesting in that the relations between Samvel Babayan and Serge Sargsyan are tense.
“Andranik Tevanyan was able to keep his close relations a secret for a long time, but when Norik Tevanyan started to openly work for S. Sargsyan, Andranik was forced to reveal that he was neutral with Samvel Babayan. But he did that in a rather unique way. He began printing articles under the fake names such as Taron Khachatryan, Arman Sahakyan, or V.S. in the “Iravunk” and “Pakagits” papers against Norik Tevanyan who was until just recently supporting him financially,” as stated in the letter. The anonymous author also claims that the ties between Andranik Tevanyan and the authorities don’t end there. “It is hard to find a similar “oppositional” activist in Armenia who has such close ties in the “opposition” camp. No further comments,” writes the author and adds that A. Tevanyan has directed the information/analysis department of the “R” television station owned by oligarch Hrant Vardanyan. The letter also includes Tevanyan’s other job titles.