0 8000 12 11

In his October 14, 2011 statement, Ruben Hayrapetyan, FFA President, blames HCA Vanadzor for the possible failure of the planned large-scale projects by FFA in Vanadzor and finds that the full responsibility now falls on those initiating the judicial process, i.e. HCA Vanadzor.

HCA Vanadzor had appealed to the RA Administrative Court in December 2010, to invalidate the 75th and 76th decisions of Vanadzor City Council of October 26, 2010 and the signed agreements deriving from these decisions.

According to the 75th decision of Vanadzor City Council of October 26, 2010, Vanadzor City Council gave its consent to donate the sport arena owned by the Vanadzor Community located at 1st Alley N20, Zoravar Andranik St., to Football Federation of Armenia with the right of ownership.

According to the 76th decision of Vanadzor City Council of October 26, 2010, Vanadzor City Council gave its consent to provide 43937.2 m2 of land owned by the Vanadzor Community and 6954.0 m2 of land located at 1st Alley N20, Zoravar Andranik St., to the Football Federation of Armenia for gratuitous permanent use; to build a football arena, with a provision that the buildings and constructions built on these lands will belong to the Football Federation of Armenia.

However, previously,  Vanadzor City Council had voted against these decisions and if the decisions were so beneficial for the development of the community the council would not have rejected FFA’s claim the first time.

The same questions were re-introduced for a vote on October 26, 2010, and the Mayor of Vanadzor drew the city council to approve the oncerejected decisions. The Chairman of HCA Vanadzor also attended the open session and explained the contradiction of the decision with the RA law ‘about local Self-government Bodies’ to the members of the council.  He also explained that FIFA gives funds to football federations to develop football on community and neighborhood levels and does not recommend such preconditions.

HCA Vanadzor finds that the donation of almost 50000 m2 of land to the Football Federation of Armenia was done with gross violations of the RA Legislation, while if FFA wanted to make investments and rebuild the football arena FFA they could do it without preconditions; the precondition is to donate the property of the citizens of the Vanadzor Community to FFA with the right of ownership.

FFA President was  only informed about the lawsuit recently and after keeping silent for almost a year, he suddenly remembered that HCA Vanadzor had filed lawsuits against the decision of the City Council of Vanadzor. HCA Vanadzor is puzzled by the belated statement of FFA President and considers it an execution of a directive from the president and an extension of a dirty campaign against the organization. These dirty tactics are explicitly conducted through programs on H1 and other responsible media in the last few days and it is aimed at intimidating the human rights organization.

HCA Vanadzor reminds that until the examination of the lawfulness of the decisions is complete in the RA Administrative Court, any statement, including the statement of FFA President and Member of National Assembly, Ruben Hayrapetyan, intends to intimidate the court, which is impermissible from the perspective of court independence and prevents the execution of the professional obligations of the judges.

HCA Vanadzor reconfirms its commitment to carrying out its mission and its dedication to the protection of human rights that cannot be hindered or suspended by any official person, state agency, or individuals supported by them.