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Generals Battle Over Bus Route [September 10, 2007] According to a contract signed between the Etchmiadzin Freight Traffic Enterprise (FTE) and former parliament member Hakob Hakobyan, in effect until his term expired, 2,500 students from Etchmiadzin were entitled to use buses on the route between Etchmiadzin and Yerevan free of charge. The buses were provided by the Etchmiadzin FTE and Hakob Hakobyan paid for the service 6,000 drams a month on average for each student. Since 1995 the Etchmiadzin-Yerevan, Armavir-Yerevan, Margara-Yerevan and Masis-Yerevan bus routes have been serviced by the Etchmiadzin FTE owned by General Manvel Grigoryan's nephew, Member of Parliament Hrant Grigoryan. The Echmiadzin-Yerevan route has been in the Grigoryans' possession for a long time and permission from one of the Grigoryans is necessary to operate a bus, minibus or even a taxi service on this route. But lately an attempt to rearrange this unwritten rule was made by the other general from Etchmiadzin – Member of Parliament Seyran Saroyan. Saroyan brought five new foreign-made buses accommodating 55 people each and announced that the tradition would continue and Etchmiadzin children studying in Yerevan would have bus service free of charge. Naturally no one asked Seyran Saroyan were the money to buy the five buses had come from, but that's a story for another day… And while the buses were being readied for September 1 st , the first day of the school year, Saroyan's representative Lieutenant Colonel Armen Poghosyan, nom de guerre Artsiv (Eagle), met with Hrant Grigoryan to inform him that from now on they too would be running a bus route. Not being opposed to the idea in principle, Grigoryan suggested collaborating the way he had with Hakob Hakobyan. Armen Poghosyan turned down the offer and on September 1, 2007 Saroyan's buses began operating on the route. In order to clarify the situation, General Manvel Grigoryan got involved. During a conversation with Armen Pogosyan, the general permitted himself to use some obscene language regarding Seyran Saroyan. This made Saroyan's representative nervous, and he pushed General Grigoryan. At that point the general's henchmen intervened and severely beat Armen Pogosyan, Saroyan's chief bodyguard Nikol, and five other people present at the meeting, and took them in an unknown destination. Learning of the incident over the phone, General Saroyan rushed back from Odessa, Ukraine on September 3 rd. When he located the beaten men he told them not to lose heart and that he had already gotten “permission” to punish their adversaries. Hakob Samvelyan |
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