The mayor of Yerevan, Tigran Avinyan, ends the year with a flurry of lawsuits filed against the media.
Panorama.amDatalex learned that within a week, Avinyan filed three lawsuits against three media outlets: Civilitas Foundation, Oragir and Zhoghovurd.
The court received the lawsuits against the first two mass media on December 10, the lawsuit against "Zhoghovurd" on December 18. The mayor of KP through the court demands from the mass media to apologize publicly, to publicly deny the factual data considered defamatory. as well as pay compensation.
The lawsuit against "Zhoghovurd" daily newspaper was signed on December 18 to Serine Khachatryan, judge of Yerevan Civil Court. The lawsuit against "Oragir" was submitted to judge Sargis Armenakyan. The lawsuit against "Civilitas" was signed by judge Armenuhi Badiryan. Avinyan filed a lawsuit against "Civilnet""Avinyans' business is an indirect beneficiary of state funds"for the article.
"The revolution of 2018 brought Tigran Avinyan, one of the members of the "Civil Agreement" party, to the top of political power. That was the year when the revolution ended the long reign of the Republican government, bringing the "Civil Pact" to power.
Tigran Avinyan, who at that time was a member of the opposition faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders, became the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia. The rise of his political career was accompanied by the prosperity of family-related businesses, including indirect benefits from government programs.
CivilNet and OCCRP (Organized Corruption and Crime Coverage Project) through a joint investigation found out that these programs were under the coordination of Avinyan and the discussions related to them were coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister Avinyan himself.
Tigran Avinyan held the position of Deputy Prime Minister in 2018-2021 and coordinated agriculture, among other areas.
The "Irrigate" company belonging to the Avinyan family worked as a contractor for nine beneficiaries of the state support program for the establishment of intensive orchards with modern technologies, helping the beneficiaries of that program to establish orchards. Beneficiaries received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government to establish orchards.
The beneficiary did not directly implement the establishment of the garden, but engaged "Irrigate" as a contractor," Civilnet wrote in particular.
