A reputedly government-linked member of Armenia’s Commission on Prevention of Corruption has prevented it from fining Defense Minister Suren Papikyan’s wife for not declaring at least $23,000 in cash in her asset statement submitted to the state body.
Like other senior state officials and their family members, Armine Muradian and her husband are legally required to disclose their incomes and assets on an annual basis.
During an inquiry conducted by the commission earlier this year, Muradian claimed that the undeclared sum was generated by cash gifts from many of the nearly 500 guests at the couple’s lavish wedding in January 2022. She said she did not disclose it due to a “technical” error.
Two of the commission’s three current members were unconvinced by that explanation, saying that Muradian must be fined up to 400,000 drams (just over $1,000) in accordance with Armenian law. However, the third member, Aramayis Pashinian, vetoed the decision.
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Pashinian defended his stance when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday. He downplayed the significance of the violation and argued that Muradian subsequently added the money in question to her bank account.
“Sometimes this punitive mechanism becomes an end in itself and doesn’t necessarily lead to a change of behavior,” said Pashinian.
Vahe Sarukhanian, an investigative journalist who has scrutinized Armenian leaders’ assets, brushed aside the explanation. Sarukhanian suggested that Pashinian showed the leniency towards the minister’s wife because of being a “figure very close to the government.”
Aramayis Pashinian is married to Deputy Prosecutor-General Srbuhi Galian’s sister. Incidentally, Galian oversees the ongoing seizure of former Armenian officials’ assets deemed to have been acquired illegally. The controversial asset forfeiture has been initiated by the country’s current political leadership.
Pashinian was also criticized by Haykuhi Harutiunian, the former chairwoman of the Commission on Prevention of Corruption. She said her former colleagues should have verified the origin of $18,000 and 2 million drams ($5,130) ostensibly gifted to Muradian during her wedding.
Harutiunian investigated many pro-government lawmakers when she headed the anti-corruption watchdog. The Armenian parliament controlled by the ruling Civil Contract party effectively fired her last December.
Defense Minister Papikyan, who is a leading member of the party, worked as a schoolteacher before the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Nikol Pashinian to power. He has faced opposition and media allegations of illicit enrichment in recent years.
Some opposition-linked and independent media outlets have estimated that Papikyan’s wedding party held at a luxury restaurant outside Yerevan cost at least $40,000. The minister, whose official monthly salary is equivalent to roughly $2,000, has not commented on that.
Papikyan also sparked controversy last year when it emerged that he paid $168,000 to buy a new apartment in Yerevan. The investigative publication Hetq.am estimated its market value at $412,000.
The apartment is located in a new residential complex built by a company controlled by Ashot Arsenian, a wealthy businessman who had close ties to former President Serzh Sarkisian. Arsenian’s son Vahagn was investigated for draft evasion before being elected mayor of the town of Jermuk on the Civil Contract ticket in December 2021.
Prime Minister Pashinian defended Papikyan during a March 2023 news conference, saying that just like tens of thousands of other Armenians, the latter obtained a mortgage to buy real state and will repay it with his legal incomes. Pashinian again claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in Armenia.
Armenian media have since continued to accuse members of the premier’s entourage of enriching themselves or their cronies. In March 2023, unknown hackers hijacked the YouTube channel of the Yerevan daily Aravot just as it was about to publish a video report detailing expensive property acquisitions by several senior government officials and pro-government lawmakers.
Armenia ranked 62nd out of 180 countries and territories evaluated in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released in January.
