Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan’s press conference was interrupted by the Institute of Hematology’s Director of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Gevorg Tamamyan. He entered the room and began to issue accusations against Torosyan. Torosyan left the building, but he told reporters in response to questions about firing the director of the Oncology Center that Director Tananyan prevented foreign investors from visiting the center.
Then, Arsen Torosyan posted a document on Facebook and wrote about investments that were made in the past at the Oncology Center. According to that document, the Varan Armenia company presented a report about problems and investments in the Department of Radiotherapy at the National Oncology Center named after Fanarjyan. This report stated that three years ago, the director of the company, Mohammad Shahram, visited Armenia and came to the center. He became aware of the situation and wanted to make a large investment by bringing in new equipment. According to the company’s director, he became acquainted with the center’s director, Armen Tananyan, and decided to make investments.
At this point, Tananyan demanded a 50 percent share in the company, but the entirety of the funds for the new equipment needed to be paid for by the foreign investor. Therefore, they argued against allowing such a high volume of shares, but according to the report, the response was that a portion of any investments needed to be allocated to high-ranking Armenian officials.
Then, according to the document, they decided that a portion of the rented property at the center needed to be renovated by the Armenian side and they also needed to purchase some of the equipment. The purchases made by both sides would be paid for by profits that came from the use of the equipment.
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The director of the company stated that the equipment the other side was supposed to purchase ended up being purchased by the Iranian side. The Armenian side did not make any investments. The Iranian side decided to pledge the radiotherapy equipment at the ArmBusinessBank in order to replenish investment funds, but Tananyan demanded half of the money provided by the bank. Therefore, the Iranian investor refused and did not take out a loan.
“Dr. Armen Tananyan’s and his brother’s threats, actions, and false statements about how the equipment was used and how we did not give him the correct price for the equipment caused us to grow disappointed. We spoke to the people who introduced us to Tananyan, but they told us to expect no help from them,” the company’s director wrote. He appealed to the former President of Armenia, but did not receive any help.
“Three months have gone by since the equipment was installed, but it is not being used, which is causing Armenian citizens with cancer to suffer. Due to the selfishness of Dr. Tananyan and his coworkers, we decided not to follow through with our future plans for the cancer diagnosis and treatment department. Our investment was useless,” the Iranian businessman wrote. He demanded that Armen Tananyan be removed from his position.
Nelly Babayan
