Regarding the statement of Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the president of the Union of Political Scientists, Lyudmila Sargsyan, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) MP, called on Hmayak Hovhannisyan to explain what grounds he had, “Let him tell the facts. It is not serious, it is ridiculous. If the Congress deems it appropriate, it will make a statement and I think of that statement as unserious.”
We asked Hmayak Hovhannisyan to tell concrete facts how Gagik Tsarukyan, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) leader, gave money for the joint staff, whether he made a transfer or gave cash. Hmayak Hovhannisyan replied, “You might remember that breakfast, lunch and dinner were free in the joint staff. The support was in the form of technical equipment. For example, by giving a coffee machine. However, we don’t use that coffee machine, because preparing coffee on a gas stove is much easier. Office expenses, transportation expenses, fuel expenses. It was a joint staff. People would come from remote districts to give information to us. A man comes from Gyumri, we must feed him, mustn’t we? It is support; it guarantees the activities of the joint staff. The joint staff had a lot of problems – stationaries, a necessity to make the internet connection faster, a car. I would present the fuel and other expenses on the 8th day of each month. He would cover those expenses, because we don’t have businesses, we don’t have any sources of financing, in order to cover even the least current expenses of the joint staff. He covered those expenses. He
gave technical equipment – copy machine, water dispenser and stuff like that. Naturally, we don’t live in the age of communism, all that costs money and those costs were covered.”
In response to our question why those expenses had not been covered by Armen Rustamyan and Levon Zurabyan equally, since they had also been members of the joint staff, Hmayak Hovhannisyan informed that Armen Rustamyan had offered him that, but he hadn’t allowed saying that Gagik Tsarukyan had already covered all the expenses, “He said, ‘If you need something, let me know.’ Meal, water, sandwiches, coffee were free. Stationaries, fuel. Hundreds of people came here, they were fed, they sometimes stayed here for days, those people had to be fed, expenditure had to be made; it is a joint staff, after all. Gagik Tsarukyan covered those expenses to his credit. However, since those were minor expenses, it wasn’t worth to make the three parties cover them jointly.”
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Hmayak Hovhannisyan was annoyed that the mass media had seen a sensation in what he had said. According to him, Vartan Oskanian has also publicly stated that Gagik Tsarukyan gave money for the joint staff, “When Oskanian himself would talk to Ruben Hakobyan about the activities of the joint staff, he would say, ‘Rubik, you know how much money Gagik Tsarukyan is ready to spend on making public supervision efficient.’ So the joint staff had to be at the center of that support.”
Hmayak Hovhannisyan also stated that after the election, he had returned the Hyundai given to the joint staff by Gagik Tsarukyan before the election.
By the way, we tried to find out the opinion of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) on the fact that Gagik Tsarukyan had given money to the joint staff. Vahan Hovhannisyan, an ARF MP, stated, “You had better ask either Armen Rustamyan or Spartak Seyranyan, they were the members of our party who participated in the work of the joint staff, I wasn’t very close to it.” Spartak Seyranyan also refused to make a comment and we couldn’t reach Armen Rustamyan.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
