To

The Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia,

The UN Office in Yerevan,

The European Union Delegation to Armenia,

The CoE Office in Yerevan,

The OSCE Office in Yerevan,

The local and international human rights organizations functioning within the territory of the Republic of Armenia,

The embassies functioning in the Republic of Armenia, 

The media representatives

Announcement

Honorable ladies and gentlemen,

This announcement alerts to the abuse of powers by a number of employees of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia. А few days ago “Veles” Human Rights NGO marked the 2^nd anniversary of its official registration. During these two years we introduced about twenty complaint letters, telegrams and reports about the behaviour of a number of investigators of the RA Investigative Committee, and as a response to them we always received letters with similar content that made no sense.

The combination of facts, mentioned in the applications and reports we introduced, indisputably proves that instead of performing obligations prescribed by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and instead of ensuring the protection of citizens from crimes and criminals:

• the RA Investigative Committee, in the name of its imployees, shows exclusive favouritism towards the former state officials of the RA relating to legalisation of their illegal activities and violation of rights and interests of citizens who suffered from their activities and were expropriated

Particularly this refers to the former Head of Civil Aviation Department of the RA — Hovhannes Eritsyan, who has — according to several families having applied to our organisation — been engaged in usury for years and owned properties of a number of RA citizens providing them millions of dollars with high rates obtained through unknown ways, as well as committing document forgeries.

• the RA Investigative Committee, in the name of its imployees, puts pressure upon and makes threats against those who speak of and claim to bring to responsibility the abovementioned former official

Thus Criminal Cases No 17112714 (Part 1 of Article 325 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia) and No 13127214 (Part 1 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia) on owning properties of G. Tumasyan, Z. Meliqyan, Z. Gyozalyan and R. Petrosyan by H. Eritsyan and his colleagues V. Vardanyan and A. Ayvazyan through usury and fraud have been initiated.

Another Criminal Case No 13142214 (Point 2 of Part 3 of Article 182 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia), parallely with the mentioned criminal cases, has been initiated against me — M. Poghosyan — Head of “Veles” Human Rights NGO.

It is noteworthy that the criminal case initiated against me has been examined for eight months, during which numerous criminal procedural violations have been committed, especially confrontations with weapon were organised with me, and I have repeatedly been offered to give up on the criminal cases initiated against H. Eritsyan and others. Testimonies and signatures have been lost from the materials of the criminal case, moreover, information about large-scale economic crime committed by H. Eritsyan was obtained during the criminal investigation which has been hidden by the investigator and her superior.

Also people who have ordered Criminal Case No 13142214 — realising that I do not yield to pressure – eventually suspend Criminal Case No 13142214 initiated obviously ungrounded against me, explaining that the person — H. Eritsyan — against whose report the criminal case has been initiated, did not realise the content of the report he gave.

Parallely with Criminal Case No 13811015 initiated on the basis of reports of foreign investors who have suffered from Viktor Ter-Hovsepyan’s activities — son of S. Osipov, another former official — the RA Attorney General, according to the bad practice adopted by some employees of the RA Investigative Committee, initiated another Criminal Case (No 14149815) against me. Within the framework of this case attempts to carry out searches without legal ground were made in apartments belonging to my relatives.

By Criminal Case No 14149815  property of such persons who did not even have the status of a witness was seized and threats were issued against me, my family and relatives by questioning me.

With regard to threats and pressures upon me through the initiated Criminal Case No 14149815 convictions of the deputy of RA National Assembly, RA Human Rights Defender, international human rights organisations lead to suspention of the case on 19 October 2015. Nevertheless, the RA Investigative Committee is extremely interested in continuing these pressures and in January 2016 the decision on suspending Criminal Case No 14149815 was removed.

• Actually the RA Investigative Committee tries — through initiating obvious, ungrounded criminal cases — to put pressure upon me in order neither I, nor our organisation could maintain the protection of interests of RA citizens and foreign citizens who suffered from illegal activities of high-rank officials, in order we could realise that any attempt to speak of illegalities committed by former and current officials shall lead to initiation of a serial criminal cases against me with the purpose of putting pressure upon me.

Furthermore, the investigators of the RA Investigation Committee have approved that initiation of that criminal case directly relates to activities of “Veles” Human Rights NGO which fights against system problems and such pressures are natural.

We hope that the Head of the RA Investigative Committee shall take responsibility for ensuring the legality of activities carried out by investigators within the structure he heads and for preventing violations committed by them, the favouritism and the corruption risks, we also hope that international and local human rights organisations shall make efforts in the fight against illegalities existing in the field and violations of human rights.

Head of “Veles” Human Rights NGO — Marina Poghosyan

15 February 2016

Head of “Veles” Human Rights NGO Marina Poghosyan claims former Head of the RA Civil Aviation Department Hovhannes Yeritsyan is trying to put pressure on her with the aim of hindering her human rights activities.

Poghosyan says she’s come to know Yeritsyan through the people who’ve suffered from the official’s usurious activities and applied to her organization for legal support. Yeritsyan, according to Poghosyan, lent money on interest to the victims and subsequently took away their property. The former aviation head, in turn, reported extortion on Poghosyan’s part; however, preliminary investigation did  not find evidence supporting the claim, and Poghosyan has filed false accusation charges against Yeritsyan.

“We want the case to be re-investigated and Yeritsyan be convicted of false accusations. In addition, an objective investigation would also reveal the cases of several of our clients and would uncover Hovhannes Yeritsyan’s mafia,” Poghosyan told an Epress.am reporter Wednesday after the hearing at the Court of Appeal.

Note, in summer, the Court of First Instance, presided over by judge Armen Bektashyan, granted Marina Pogosyan’s claim and sent the case for re-investigation. The ruling was announced on July 31; however, an investigation was not initiated, and in September, public prosecutor Martin Nalbandyan appealed against the verdict, which can legally done only within 10 days.

At the hearing on October 7, the prosecutor explained that he had received the judicial act from the court on September 15 so he “had no chance to appeal earlier.”

“They did not appeal until I applied to the Special Investigation Service to look into and prove the investigator’s criminal activities, and until Yeritsyan came back from Moscow and bribed them in order to appeal. If Bektashyan was so late to send the verdict, why didn’t you apply to the Council of Justice?” Poghosyan, who sees intent in the investigator’s and prosecutor’s actions, stated in court.

Investigator Paruyr Aghababyan, in turn, announced that Poghosyan’s rights had not been violated, as stated in the verdict of the Court of First Instance: “Criminal proceedings against Marina Poghosyan were not initiated,” he stated.

“Basically, what they are saying is I have to be happy and grateful that I’m free,” Poghosyan told our reporter after the hearing.

http://www.epress.am/en/2015/10/07/armenian-human-rights-activist-claims-shes-been-falsely-accused-of-extortion-demands-case-be-re-opened.html

For her, boxing is not a hobby, but something she does in deadly earnest. She took it up in the hope it would help her defend herself from the loan sharks she has taken on. Last year, she set up a campaigning NGO called Veles to tackle what she says is a nationwide problem that largely goes unnoticed.

“I have been threatened on many occasions,” she told IWPR. “I need to be in good physical shape and be prepared to defend myself.”

Poghosyan says more than 100 people have sought her help in the year since she established Veles.

“The people who come to us have suffered from officials at various levels [who offer loans]. The law enforcement agencies don’t defend their rights so they come to us,” she said. “There are similar problems in the provinces [outside the capital]. People come to us from Gyumri, from Vanadzor – there are so many of them that we aren’t able to help everyone.”

Armenian law defines unlawful lending as “usury”, specifically any arrangement involving twice or more the central bank’s interest rate, or “other deals from which one side benefits but which is extremely disadvantageous to the other”.

The penalties that can be imposed are fairly low – up to two years in prison, or a fine.

At the moment, the central bank lending rate works out at two per cent a month, whereas some private lenders ask for up to 15 per cent, again monthly. But because this is illegal, they invent special terms to bump up the loan price.

“Usurers cannot officially conclude a deal to lend money at, say, ten per cent [monthly], because they’ll get brought to book for that,” explained Artur Sukiasyan, a lawyer who defends loan sharks’ clients. “So they draw up false documentation for a property sale, which then becomes security to ensure repayment.”

If the borrower fails to repay the loan, the document suddenly becomes real, and the lender will seize his or her home.

That is what happened to Zinaida Melikyan, 28, who took out a loan to grow her business – a textiles shop with her family home on the same premises – and ended up losing everything she had.

She took out a loan of 16,000 US dollars from one Kristine Vardanyan, with the interest set at ten per cent a month.When she fell behind with the repayments, she borrowed more money, and ended up with a debt of 100,000 dollars including the principal sum plus interest.

Melikyan then consolidated the debt by taking out another loan of 100,000 dollars, again at ten per cent a month.

“But no one is going to offer such a large sum without security, so [the lender] persuaded me to transfer my shop to his ownership. He said that when I paid back the money, they would re-register it as mine again,” she said.

When she could not meet the payments, her home and shop were transferred to the ownership of Artavazd Ayvazyan, a lawyer and business partner of the lender, Hovhannes Yeritsyan.

When IWPR asked Yeritsyan, formerly head of civil aviation in Armenia, for an interview, he showed up with books written about him and a pistol.

He admitted acquiring Melikyan’s property and said it was she who asked him to arrange the sale to Ayvazyan; all he did was make the introduction.

Ayvazyan disputed this, saying it was Yeritsyan who decided to sell the shop to him.

“I didn’t know Zinaida. I reached agreement with Yeritsyan and gave him the money,” he said.

Melikyan says the transfer of ownership from Yeritsyan to Ayvazyan really amounted to paying off her debt to the former in exchange for a new loan from the latter.

She went to the police, who launched a criminal investigation that has continued for more than a year.

In the interim, Ayvazyan has had Melikyan’s family evicted from the property.

Poghosyan, who was working on the case, was there when it happened, and accuses court bailiffs of assaulting her and Melikyan’s 75-year-old grandmother.

“We have come to realise that the police, prosecution service, the judiciary and the state bailiff agency represent not the law but Yeritsyan’s interests,” she told IWPR.

Gayane Tumasyan is in a similar position. Her husband took out a high-interest loan from Yeritsyan, and their detached house was signed over as security.

“My husband paid interest at ten per cent a month over the course of a year and a half. When he was no longer able to do so, they took away the house we had built together,” she said.

Yeritsyan is now living in the house, which he says he just “acquired”.

“These people are slandering me. I have never lent money with interest,” he told IWPR.

Tumasyan filed a complaint which resulted in criminal proceedings. The case was dropped, however. She appealed against the ruling, and judges ruled that the investigation had not been full or complete, so they ordered a new investigation.

The Veles organisation has written numerous letters to the president and the prosecution service about these cases, but has heard nothing back.

Another case involves Siranush Chplakhyan, who alleges that a former government official lent her money and eventually seized her home in lieu of payment.

“I borrowed 25,000 dollars at five per cent a month from Nune [Pluzyan], and paid 1,250dollars a month over two years. Nune demand that my house be formally signed over to her cousin. She said she’d return it once the debt was paid,” Chplakhyan said.

The house was then claimed by Pluzyan’s cousin Grayr Babayan, who has tried to evict Chplakhyan, so far without success.

The police have dropped their investigation into the case, and Chplakhyan has been unable to appeal against that decision, although she has a separate court case in train in which she is seeking an annulment of the property transfer.

Babayan insists the house is legally his. “I acquired this house and fell into a trap. I understand it if you find this case surprising. So do I,” he told IWPR.

Chplakhyan points out that she has continued to live in the house despite it being signed over to Babayan in 2011.

“If they’d really acquired the house, would they have let us live there for all these years?” she asked.

Pluzyan was sacked from her government job in January.She denies any role in the purchase of the house and says she does not even know Chplakhyan.

Sukiasyan, the lawyer, says it is difficult to find evidence to build a legal case, since such informal loans are not documented.

Arman Gharibyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.

By Arman Gharibyan

https://iwpr.net/global-voices/stakes-high-armenias-loan-shark-victims

Marina Poghosyan is taking boxing lessons. It is an unusual sport for women in Armenia, and Poghosyan, 53, is her trainer’s only female student.

For her, boxing is not a hobby, but something she does in deadly earnest. She took it up in the hope it would help her defend herself from the loan sharks she has taken on. Last year, she set up a campaigning NGO called Veles to tackle what she says is a nationwide problem that largely goes unnoticed.

“I have been threatened on many occasions,” she told IWPR. “I need to be in good physical shape and be prepared to defend myself.”

Poghosyan says more than 100 people have sought her help in the year since she established Veles.

“The people who come to us have suffered from officials at various levels [who offer loans]. The law enforcement agencies don’t defend their rights so they come to us,” she said. “There are similar problems in the provinces [outside the capital]. People come to us from Gyumri, from Vanadzor – there are so many of them that we aren’t able to help everyone.”

Armenian law defines unlawful lending as “usury”, specifically any arrangement involving twice or more the central bank’s interest rate, or “other deals from which one side benefits but which is extremely disadvantageous to the other”.

The penalties that can be imposed are fairly low – up to two years in prison, or a fine.

At the moment, the central bank lending rate works out at two per cent a month, whereas some private lenders ask for up to 15 per cent, again monthly. But because this is illegal, they invent special terms to bump up the loan price.

“Usurers cannot officially conclude a deal to lend money at, say, ten per cent [monthly], because they’ll get brought to book for that,” explained Artur Sukiasyan, a lawyer who defends loan sharks’ clients. “So they draw up false documentation for a property sale, which then becomes security to ensure repayment.”

If the borrower fails to repay the loan, the document suddenly becomes real, and the lender will seize his or her home.

That is what happened to Zinaida Melikyan, 28, who took out a loan to grow her business – a textiles shop with her family home on the same premises – and ended up losing everything she had.

She took out a loan of 16,000 US dollars from one Kristine Vardanyan, with the interest set at ten per cent a month.When she fell behind with the repayments, she borrowed more money, and ended up with a debt of 100,000 dollars including the principal sum plus interest.

Melikyan then consolidated the debt by taking out another loan of 100,000 dollars, again at ten per cent a month.

“But no one is going to offer such a large sum without security, so [the lender] persuaded me to transfer my shop to his ownership. He said that when I paid back the money, they would re-register it as mine again,” she said.

When she could not meet the payments, her home and shop were transferred to the ownership of Artavazd Ayvazyan, a lawyer and business partner of the lender, Hovhannes Yeritsyan.

When IWPR asked Yeritsyan, formerly head of civil aviation in Armenia, for an interview, he showed up with books written about him and a pistol.

He admitted acquiring Melikyan’s property and said it was she who asked him to arrange the sale to Ayvazyan; all he did was make the introduction.

Ayvazyan disputed this, saying it was Yeritsyan who decided to sell the shop to him.

“I didn’t know Zinaida. I reached agreement with Yeritsyan and gave him the money,” he said.

Melikyan says the transfer of ownership from Yeritsyan to Ayvazyan really amounted to paying off her debt to the former in exchange for a new loan from the latter.

She went to the police, who launched a criminal investigation that has continued for more than a year.

In the interim, Ayvazyan has had Melikyan’s family evicted from the property.

Poghosyan, who was working on the case, was there when it happened, and accuses court bailiffs of assaulting her and Melikyan’s 75-year-old grandmother.

“We have come to realise that the police, prosecution service, the judiciary and the state bailiff agency represent not the law but Yeritsyan’s interests,” she told IWPR.

Gayane Tumasyan is in a similar position. Her husband took out a high-interest loan from Yeritsyan, and their detached house was signed over as security.

“My husband paid interest at ten per cent a month over the course of a year and a half. When he was no longer able to do so, they took away the house we had built together,” she said.

Yeritsyan is now living in the house, which he says he just “acquired”.

“These people are slandering me. I have never lent money with interest,” he told IWPR.

Tumasyan filed a complaint which resulted in criminal proceedings. The case was dropped, however. She appealed against the ruling, and judges ruled that the investigation had not been full or complete, so they ordered a new investigation.

The Veles organisation has written numerous letters to the president and the prosecution service about these cases, but has heard nothing back.

Another case involves Siranush Chplakhyan, who alleges that a former government official lent her money and eventually seized her home in lieu of payment.

“I borrowed 25,000 dollars at five per cent a month from Nune [Pluzyan], and paid 1,250dollars a month over two years. Nune demand that my house be formally signed over to her cousin. She said she’d return it once the debt was paid,” Chplakhyan said.

The house was then claimed by Pluzyan’s cousin Grayr Babayan, who has tried to evict Chplakhyan, so far without success.

The police have dropped their investigation into the case, and Chplakhyan has been unable to appeal against that decision, although she has a separate court case in train in which she is seeking an annulment of the property transfer.

Babayan insists the house is legally his. “I acquired this house and fell into a trap. I understand it if you find this case surprising. So do I,” he told IWPR.

Chplakhyan points out that she has continued to live in the house despite it being signed over to Babayan in 2011.

“If they’d really acquired the house, would they have let us live there for all these years?” she asked.

Pluzyan was sacked from her government job in January.She denies any role in the purchase of the house and says she does not even know Chplakhyan.

Sukiasyan, the lawyer, says it is difficult to find evidence to build a legal case, since such informal loans are not documented.

Arman Gharibyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia. 

https://iwpr.net/global-voices/stakes-high-armenias-loan-shark-victims

These days when our whole nation mourns the 100 years of the atrocities committed in the Ottoman Empire, I, personally, mourn not only the evil, committed a century ago, but also the massacre and eviction of people committed in nowadays Armenia by Armenians themselves.

In fact, our judicial system conducts the same policy as the Young Turks did at their time.  For many years, RA citizens have been evicted from their homes by beatings, and those beatings are implemented through judicial acts, in independent Republic of Armenia, through those very officials who live on the account of the taxes we pay and who are called to protect the Constitution of our country and the rights of its citizens.

Today, when I become a witness to all of this, what should I remember and what should I demand? The question of forgetting does not come up, for almost every day I become a witness to the crimes committed by our miserable judicial system. I do not remember, but I do remind You that we are attempting to build a legal state taking on the protection of interests of impoverished and homeless citizens, that were deprived of their properties as a result of criminal cooperation between current and former officials, investigating officers, prosecutors and judges.

I remind and demand of You not to remain indifferent to the programme of emptying Armenia of Armenians and not to become the sponsor of this crime through Your laissez-faire. Today, when Armenia has almost become desolated, when people leave their motherland, disappointed and disillusioned, the destiny of each and every citizen ought to preoccupy You.

Whose President are you: of the criminal judges, prosecutors, policemen? Whose President are You? What interests are You protecting, what is Your hope? Giving international importance to Armenian Genocide, are you not ashamed of the fact that obvious crimes take place in our country daily.

What is Your aim, to deprive people of their property in such a way so that they become ready to sell their votes for 500 Armenian drams instead of 5000? Do You want to become a President of 500 dram worth people? Till when will this cynicism and impunity continue?

When will the conscience of a Leader of the Nation be awaken in You? How long are You going to be not implicated towards the problems of RA citizens? How long are You going to allow small and medium officials deprive of authority and befoul the country, of which You are the President?

Are You not aware that the former Chief of Civilian Aviation of RA Hovhannes Yeritsyan attends the Police with Your personal photo in his hands claiming that you are his “fellow countryman”, and stating that he can do anything he likes in this country? Are You not aware that this former official threatens RA citizens with weapons received from You and the President of Russian Federation Putin as he claims, and deprives them from their properties?

If previously we perceived Yeritsyan’s statements as delusions of an old man, then the events of the recent years assured us that his statements about his sponsors were not groundless as illegal judicial acts are made by his order, criminal cases are opened and dismissed groundlessly, numerous families are left homeless.

Mr. Serge Sargsyan, we remind and demand, as we appealed to You last year, but Your indifferent attitude have probably inspired the criminals even more and they became even more assured of their impunity. However, this country does not belong neither to them nor to You, it is our country, and we will build a legal state. Join us until you have this opportunity.

P.S. – My mother’s grandfather that managed to somehow escape the Turkish yataghan, settled down in Armenia and became one of the founders of Arabkir district. However, he could not imagine that one day the country that he was building would turn to a slaughter field, slaughter that is conducted by Armenians towards Armenians.

You remember and demand from the Turks, we remind You and demand from You.

Marina Poghosyan

Veles Human Rights NGO

Chairperson

24.04.2015

The RA Special Investigation Service had made a decision rejecting the initiation of a criminal case for violence used against 76-year old Zinaida Gyozalyan and Veles NGO president Marina Poghosyan. The latter consequently appealed the decision, while today, March 6, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts, representated by Judge Levon Avetisyan, rejected the appeal, stating it as ungrounded.

According to Poghosyan, on March 17, 2014, during an eviction of residents of a textiles shop on Abovyan St., employees from the Judicial Act Compulsory Enforcement Service subjected 75-year old Zinaida Gyuzalyan to violence and when she tried to intervene, they locked her in a room. Afterwards, the employees used violence against Poghosyan by taking her outside the residence and throwing her down the stairs. According to the investigator of the case, the service employees had “gently embraced the human rights defender.”

Marina Poghosyan, who appealed to the court, noted that investigator Sargsyan had not only showed inaction, for example, not organizing a confrontation or taking into account the fact that they had called the police and others multiple times that day, but also allowed an official fraud, issueing four identical testimonies of the victims.

Poghosyan also noted that the day of the event she was present there as a human rights defender and her name was not in the court decision, so the Judicial Act Compulsory Enforcement Service employees had no right to subject her to violence.

Prosecutor Yeritsyan was in court defending the SIS’ decision. He countered, saying that Marina Poghosyan had created obstacles for the representatives of JACES, and for that reason they “were made” to use force.

Marina Poghosyan will appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals.

http://www.epress.am/en/2015/03/06/human-rights-defender%E2%80%99s-appeal-rejected-prosecutor-justifies-use-of-force.html

For months, the Veles NGO has been fighting not only against usurers and frauds but also against their patronizing representatives in the prosecutor’s office. Veles NGO Director Marina Poghosyan, who works on cases with victims of usury and fraud, has written an open letter to General Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan.

“Moreover, we have attempted to also personally inform you of the current problems, however your indifferent and uncommunicative attitude has made us suspicions that the above mentioned group carries out its criminal actions with the sponsorship of the General Prosecutor or due to the inaction of the office,” noted Poghosyan.

She stressed that the issue is related to the protests by a group of citizens against former Head of Civil Aviation Department Hovhannes Yeritsyan and member of the Chamber of Advocates Artavazd Ayvazyan, to which a criminal case has been initiated based on those complaints, however after a short time, the case was discontinued and the presiding prosecutors justified the legality of the decision to discontinue.

“However, subsequently, after one of the decisions of discontinuing the case was appealed in court, it became clear, that the investigator did not conduct an objective and multi-sided examination. This particular case went back to the pre-trial stage, and we are hopefull that after the publishing of this letter the prosecutor will stop turning a blind eye and will possibly stop the sponsorship of the people accused of usury by several families, as well as properly supervise the investigation unit’s work,” stressed Poghosyan.

The letter notes that the Prosecutor’s office has turned a blind eye to yet another case related to Yeritsyan and Ayvazyan where the investigation was neither done objectively nor pluralistically.

“In this case, carrying out the latter’s will (absolutely not a Judicial Act, because no such Judicial Act exists), the Judicial Act  Compulsory Enforcement Service employees abused their official positions and subjected a 75-year old women and myself to violence. A criminal case had been initiated in regards to the incident, which was also discontinued and its discontinuation was again justified by the prosecutor’s office.

Even more astonishing is that the prosecutor supervising the case did not realize that the case was discontinued without the special investigative service’s investigator implementing any cross-examination, while there are multiple contradictions in the case. Additionally, the prosecutor did not realize that the explanations and testimonies of many people were written by one person, with whose lite hand this case was closed. The decision to discontinue the case is currently being appealed in court. We are convinced that this case will prove the Prosecutor’s inaction,” underlined Poghosyan.

In her letter Poghosyan expressed the hope that Gevorg Kostanyan’s possibilities and authority would be sufficient for the RA General Prosecutor to reveal those individuals who are sponsoring the aforementioned couple in his directed institution, “throwing shade on the already mistrustful reputation of the General Prosecutor’s office.“http://www.epress.am/en/2015/02/23/open-letter-asking-general-prosecutor%E2%80%99s-office-to-stop-sponsoring-fraud-and-usury.html

Siranush Chplakhyan claims that Armenian government employee Nune Pluzyan deals with usury (loan-sharking), deceptively defrauding debtors of their real estate. Today, Chplakhyan and her sister protested in front of the Armenian government buillding, promising to protest again in front of PM Hovik Abrahamyan’s home near Victory Park if their protests are not given importance. Epress.am spoke to the protesting women who noted that their letters to the PM are not reaching him because Pluzyan works in the department dealing with petitions.

According to Chplakhyan, Pluzyan loaned $21,000 with interest to her and as a guarantee asked for a buy-sell agreement on two (Chplakhyan’s and sister’s) homes, which would safeguard the loan if not paid.

The protesting woman told Epress.am that she paid more interest than the initial amount (the agreed 5% a month), but she was unable to cover the debt itself. According to her, Pluzyan wanted $40,000 in order for her to return the homes, which Chplakhyan agreed to. However, the government worker retracted from her demand. She did not agree with selling one house and paying off the loan, while one of the homes stayed with the original owners. Chplakhyan’s sister noted that she did not sign the trade agreement.

After the death of the two sisters’ mother, the court did not provide enough time for the issue of inheritance and immediately decided in favor of Pluzyan. Siranush Chplakhyan notes that the court may have been biased, because Pluzyan told her that she had connections to high officials, especially with ministers. She spoke about another violation, in which the Court of Appeals initially accepted to proceed with their complaint, however, a few days ago they unexpectedly stated that the case would not proceed. That gave Pluzyan the opportunity to apply to the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service and evict the sisters from their homes.

Recall, that according to Armenian law, Usury is loaning money or property at an interest rate more than twice exceeding the one of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, as well as making deals with individuals on extremely unfavorable conditions of which the other party took advantage, is punished with a fine in the amount of 400-600 minimal salaries or with imprisonment for up to 4 years.

This year Armenia’s civil society was enriched with another law enforcement structure, another non-governmental organization founded by a woman. Due to her active work Marina has managed to attract not only the attention of law enforcement system, but also of representatives of media. Our interview with her is about the violence used against women’s role in law enforcement system.

The more pressure you are put on, the more decisive you become