In an article published earlier this week, Hetq.am also revealed that the 225-square-meter apartment was previously owned by a businessman whose assets Armenian law-enforcement authorities have been trying to confiscate on the grounds that they were acquired illegally.
The authorities say that the businessman, Tigran Manukian, acted as a front for Gagik Tsarukian, another, much wealthier tycoon who is also facing asset forfeiture proceedings stemming from a controversial law enacted in 2020. According to them, Tsarukian is the de facto owner of 21 cars and 13 properties formally belonging to Manukian.
They include two apartments located in an exclusive apartment block built by Tsarukian in downtown Yerevan two decades ago. Manukian also owned a third apartment in the same building. It was mysteriously excluded from the list of his assets which prosecutors want to confiscate.
Manukian gifted the apartment to an acquaintance of Abazian, Yeghishe Hambardzumian, in October 2023 just days after the prosecutors petitioned a Yerevan court to allow the asset seizures. Hambardzumian, who is a businessman based in Russia, in turn sold it to the NSS chief’s son Robert in February 2024 for 240 million drams ($615,000). According to Hetq.am estimates, the market value of the property exceeded $900,000.
Abajian Jr. used a mortgage loan to pay for it. The loan was provided by a bank owned by Khachatur Sukiasian, another tycoon and parliamentarian representing Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party.
Robert Abazian’s current occupation is not known, and it is unclear how he could afford the purchase. The NSS refused to comment on that, saying that the matter relates to his “private life.”
“I have the impression that the transaction that took place was not accidental,” the author of the Hetq.am article, Tirayr Muradian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Muradian said he suspects that it was the result of corrupt practices.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claims to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in Armenia since coming to power in 2018. Pashinian regularly pledges to recover “wealth stolen from the people” through the Western-backed law on asset forfeiture which his critics view as unconstitutional.
The law has so far been enforced only against former Armenian officials, their families and businesspeople linked to them. Despite growing media allegations that members of Pashinian’s own entourage are enriching themselves or their cronies, no asset forfeiture cases are known to have been brought against any serving officials.
Some of those officials have also been engaged in expensive property deals. They include Sasun Khachatrian, who headed until last December a law-enforcement agency tasked with combating corruption.
Infocom.am revealed two years ago that Khachatrian halted a criminal investigation into a wealthy businessman in 2021 shortly after buying an apartment in a new residential district constructed by the latter’s company in Yerevan. Khachatiran paid 71 million drams ($180,000) for the 167 square-meter property. According to the online publication, this is significantly less than what the owners of other apartments in the same building paid the company called Jermuk Group.
Jermuk Group also sold an apartment to Defense Minister Suren Papikian for $168,000 in 2022. Hetq.am estimated its market price at $412,000.
