Everyone is talking about this nowadays, even more than the gas price increase. Why was Artashes Tumanyan excluded from the political field? Was this planned beforehand or a result of events? There are a lot of explanations.
Didn’t the former head of the president’s staff know that he would be fired if he founded a political party? Of course not, he is still in politics. On the other hand maybe he was promised to support his party and than was surprised with these actions. This is also quite possible. Anyway it is hardly possible that Artashes Tumanyan didn’t know this because he had worked with the president for a long time. So we can assume that either the president had promised Artashes Tumanyan to support his party and then Tumanyan made a serious mistake, which later made the president angry, or he had promised to help him in order to use this factor against him later to take him out of politics.
Artashes Tumanyan had spoken about his intention to continue his career in the National Assembly a long time ago. He wanted to found a political party for this purpose but he wouldn’t do that without getting the president’s permission. And maybe he kept this intention in secret and used his position for his own purposes. Of course he had to get the president’s permission and probably promised him to use his own party to work for the president during the coming elections. But the active work of Artashes Tumanyan amazed the president too because he was using his position to campaign and form his electorate from second rank officials. As for these second rank officials, they probably thought that Tumanyan had gotten permission from the president and did their best to support him. Kocharyan was also afraid that this party would also cooperate with other parties due to the fact that Artashes Tumanyan was in good relations with ARF and was making negotiations on further cooperation. Kocharyan would never let him cooperate with ARF.
There were also personal reasons in the president’s office. First, from the beginning there were conflicts between Artashes Tumanyan and the first advisor to the president, Armen Gevorgyan. As a rule Gevorgyan had never considered Tumanyan as his chief. This caused conflicts. Everyone knows that Kocharyan trusts Armen Gevorgyan the most. Politicians say that this trust is the main reason why Gevorgyan works as an advisor. Besides that Artashes was not considered as an “insider” in the president’s office. Some politicians say that Mr. Tumanyan had conflicts with the president’s advisor Garnik Isagulyan as well.
According to some sources, the National Security and police watch and check up on the relatives of Artashes Tumanyan. And the reason why Artashes Tumanyan was personally invited to the National Security Service and police offices was to prove that he shouldn’t found a party.
This wasn’t enough and according to our information the police services were ordered to examine the activities of Tumanyan in the past and his work connected with the Lins foundation. As for his work connected with the Lins foundation, there is much to find out there. For your information please note that he had been the coordinator of the foundation programs. It has been spoken much that this money was stolen and that the constructions in the earthquake zone are not finished; plus, quality of the asphalted roads are not good. A. Tumanyan has also stone mines and bought the pavement stones from the stone company of MP Hermine Naghdalyan. Of course the high ranked officials knew about this but they did not say a word in order to be able to use that as a key factor in the future. The pre-election campaign of the parliamentary and presidential elections is just about to start, as well as the second phase of the Lins foundation programs, which will be already coordinated by Armen Gevorgyan.
The oligarch
The press has written many articles about the intention of Artashes Tumanyan to get US citizenship and buy an apartment there. The press has also written that Artashes Tumanyan has bought a villa in Arzakan. But according to our sources, this villa of 20.610 square meters space with a land territory of 26,5 hectare that he has bought was not bought under his name, but rather under the name of the “Aghveran” incorporation registered in the US and headed by a person named V. Amirkhanyan. Rumor has it that the “Bug Wheel” company occupied in wheel business, headed by the friend of A. Tumanyan, Andranik Grigoryan, in fact belongs to A. Tumanyan. Since August, 2005 this company has made numerous contracts with state bodies to provide wheels and rubbing materials. A. Tumanyan has brought a lot of orders for this company by using his power and status.
The former head of the president’s office has also a couple of more companies, which are registered under the name of “Armenian-American ventures”. As for the “Hytex Plastic” company, located in the territory of Mergelyan institute, that belongs to Tumanyan’s son.
Recently after the closing of the Lins program implementation office the technical facilities were sold for small sums. Rumor has it that Mr. Tumanyan bought the furniture and technical facilities of this office at a low price for his own party office. This is not all that A. Tumanyan needs in a party and political background to protect his rights and capital like a lot of oligarchs in our country do. But in spite of this he was clever to register his property under the name of “Armenian-American ventures”.
The Armenian authorities used this factor in order to be able to use it for their own purposes and secure themselves in the future like the international community did connected with corruption in order to keep their power and influence in our country. This step helped them reach two goals at one time: they managed both to make A. Tumanyan calm down and frightened the others. Of course we don’t mean that the closing of “New State” means that it will really be closed. In other words, most definitely they will “freeze” this process until everything is in order. At the same time, there are rumors flying around that they have claimed Artashes Tumanyan to compensate his violations and return 10 million dollars to “the top”, just like in the case of the head of the Justice ministry judicial acts mandatory fulfillment department, Anatoli Avagyan.