One of the buildings at Republic Square (the building of the former Council of Trade Unions) has been sold to the owners of the Ararat Park Hyatt premium class hotel in Moscow. It turns out that the transaction was done in 2008 but the construction will start in the near future. The Ararat Park Hyatt was built in the center of Moscow by the president of Lusine company Murad Sargsyan, who has passed away. By the way, he also sponsored the first phase of the construction of an Armenian church in Moscow. Now the hotel belongs to Sargsyan brothers and it is managed by Samvel Sargsyan, who is MP now. He is a member of RPA faction, and before that he used to be the governor of Vayots-Dzor in 2003-2007. There were also rumors in Moscow that together with the Sargsyans other Armenian businessmen had shares in that company too. According to our sources of information, besides Sargsyan there are other owners of the Ararat Park Hyatt, who are politicians and businessmen from Armenia. Recently architects and designers were invited to Armenia for the purpose of designing the construction of the building. These people have discussed the construction plan with MP Samvel Sargsyan. Yesterday our correspondent tried to ask for information from the deputy head of the Armenian Trade Unions Confederation Khachik Arakelyan. Since the building was sold the offices of the trade unions have been moved to Erebuni hotel. According to Kh. Arakelyan, the Trade Unions building was sold in 2008 due to hard financial situation. “We sold the building to cope with those difficulties. The union is surviving on the account of membership fees. We have had financial problems since 1993. Please imagine that since 1999 we had to sell our properties to survive,” said Arakelyan without mentioning that the building had been sold and added, “The building was sold according to the charter of the organization and based on the decision of the board. It was a decision of three institutions such as the ownership management committee of the union, the president and the board of the union. We have deposited the money of the transaction in several banks for the purpose of receiving interest rates. These interest rates are helping the union to operate. In the beginning of every year financial documents are drafted for taking money from the bank and all expenses are strictly controlled by the management. This committee that controls the deals consists of 24 people – one member representing each of the 24 member organizations. Every six months they monitor to make sure the money is spent properly”. According to Mr. Arakelyan, the building was sold to Ginekar Armenian organization. By the way, the name of this domestic organization was connected with the privatization of Erebuni hotel several years ago. This organization belongs to Samvel Sargsyan too. Before that the building of Erebuni hotel was given to families of refugees escaped during the war with Azerbaijan in 1998-1999. The information about the fact of the building being bought by Ginekar company was made public only after that company moved the refugees from that building by giving some compensation to them.
