Citizens residing at Tbilisian highway have called the editorial of the 168 Hours newspaper to give interesting information
They say that from time to time the president of Legal State party, the security council secretary Artur Baghdasaryan visits this area to have a look at the construction that is going on in the left side of the Tbilisian highway. The citizens of the neighboring building believe Artur Baghdasaryan is connected with that building, otherwise he would not visit the construction field and he would not be interested in that building. Later it turned out that the huge building under construction does not belong to a restaurant or hotel but a religious sect. We tried to find out what was being built there. Some of the workers working on the construction said that it was going to be a place for events, but later they changed their minds and said that it would belong to some sects. By the way, there is a billboard on the construction showing that they had received permission of building from the municipality of Yerevan. This sign also writes that the building would be used for organizing events. The workers of the construction say that the sect named ‘Word of life’ is located on the same street in a close distance and this new building will be the coordination office of that sect. The workers also inform that it has been three years that this huge construction is going on. They also inform that the building is being built by the representative of the ‘Word of life’ church Artur Simonyan. One can find detailed information about this construction in the web site of the ‘Word of life’, which also shows all phases of the construction starting from 2007. “Let’s build together. By fundraising 11 dollars in 11 months you will build the largest Bible center of the region. The stands of honor; your name will be carved on the stands of the building to highlight your participation in weakening nations and as a reminder for future generations,” writes the web site of the ‘Word of life’. This organization spends a lot of resources, both financial and modern technologies, on advertisement. Their campaign is also carried out by certain representatives of the Armenian show business. There have been many publications about this in the media. It is understandable that they cannot recruit the elder generation, thus they are targeting the youth. Singers and humorists can help them by campaigning for their ideologies and recruiting new followers.
We asked the Legal State party whether the chairman of their party Artur Baghdasaryan is in any way connected with that construction. “What you say is like a joke because Artur Baghdasaryan is not the official that could have free time to spend on visiting construction areas. It is not true and has nothing to do with the reality. Even more, Artur Baghdasaryan does not ever pass through that street,” said the spokeswoman of Legal State party Susanna Abrahamyan. If so, we wonder how he could find time to take care of the construction to open a clinic in his European Academy, building the Hayasi wine and brandy factory in Ashtarak’s Voskevaz village and high storey elite buildings. To note, the media has numerously written about the wealth of Artur Baghdasaryan. Several months ago he finished the construction of his luxury house near the Cascades, and even he built another house next to his house for his brother. During the elections of 2007-2008 he submitted documents to the Central Electoral Commission showing that he did not have any businesses. According to that document, he had only one apartment at Bayron 3 address, 900k drams and 216k dollars. In that document he also wrote that he did not have a private car and was living on the MP’s salary amounting to 3,414,140 drams (285k drams a month). He also has a restaurant complex in Jrvezh district and other businesses such as the Astoria restaurant-sauna on Zakyan street, the Crystal taxi service, the 8-storey building of the Legal State party on Abovyan street, etc. He is also the owner of a new-built elite building at Baghramyan 1/2-24 address, located on the way to the public notary office from the street of Baghramyan. Artur Baghdasaryan had success in business mostly during the time of being MP. He registers his businesses in the name of his brother, and there is also information that they also owe several large shops of computers and technical facilities in Yerevan, where they sell the computers they import to Armenia. We wonder how such a busy state official can follow and take care of all these businesses if he is that busy.
Let’s go back to the ‘Word of life’. In an interview given by the head of the ‘Relief and support center for people affected by destructive belief’ Alexander Amaryan to our newspaper, in which he spoke about the dangers of the ‘Word of life’ organization and said, “Religious organizations have penetrated into the healthcare system as well, which helps them reach their goals. They understand it very well that it is very easy to influence on the psychology of sick people. One of their common activities are organizing benevolent seminars for healthcare, during which they distribute medicines, medical items and support. As a rule they do this under the cover of the names of different scientific and cultural non-governmental organizations. The ‘Word of life’ church has opened a center for supporting pregnant women in Armenia, which is headed by the Kmrtumyan couple. A question originates whether those people really need those medicines or whether they have been examined to be prescribed those medicines. Has anybody checked the content of those medicines? These are questions that are not examined or addressed by any institution in Armenia.”