Robert Abazyan, the 31-year-old son of National Security Service (NSS) Director Armen Abazyan, has purchased a luxury Yerevan apartment for over $600,000—a transaction Armenian investigative outlet Hetq.am suggests may be entangled in corruption.
In a report published earlier this week, Hetq disclosed that the 225-square-meter apartment had previously belonged to businessman Tigran Manukyan, whose assets the government has been trying to seize under Armenia’s controversial asset forfeiture law. Authorities allege Manukyan was a proxy for influential oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan, who they say is the true owner of numerous properties and vehicles formally registered under Manukyan’s name.
Among these were three upscale apartments in a Tsarukyan-developed complex in central Yerevan. While prosecutors listed two of them in their asset seizure request, a third apartment—later acquired by Abazyan’s son—was conspicuously left off.
That apartment changed hands in October 2023, shortly after prosecutors petitioned a Yerevan court to begin confiscation proceedings. Manukyan transferred ownership of the unit to Yeghishe Hambardzumyan, a Russian-based Armenian businessman with ties to Abazyan. Then, in February 2024, Hambardzumyan sold it to Robert Abazyan for 240 million drams (about $615,000). Independent estimates by Hetq suggest the market value was at least $900,000.
The younger Abazyan financed the deal with a mortgage loan issued by a bank owned by Khachatur Sukiasyan—a Civil Contract party MP and prominent businessman.
Abazyan’s professional background remains unclear, and the NSS declined to answer questions about how he could afford the transaction, dismissing the matter as a “private life” issue.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly touted the asset forfeiture law, enacted in 2020 with Western support, as a tool to reclaim wealth allegedly stolen from the public. He has claimed that systemic corruption has been rooted out since he came to power in 2018. However, critics argue the law has been applied selectively—targeting former officials and their associates, while leaving current power brokers untouched.
Despite mounting media reports implicating figures close to the ruling Civil Contract party in questionable property deals, no asset forfeiture cases have been initiated against current officials.
One such case involves Sasun Khachatryan, former head of the Special Investigative Service, which was tasked with fighting corruption. In 2021, Khachatryan reportedly closed a criminal case against a businessman shortly after buying a unit in a residential complex built by that businessman’s company, Jermuk Group. According to Infocom.am, Khachatryan paid just 71 million drams (around $180,000) for the 167-square-meter apartment—far less than what comparable units sold for.
Jermuk Group also sold a luxury apartment to Defense Minister Suren Papikyan in 2022 for $168,000. Hetq estimated the actual market value at $412,000.
These cases have fueled concerns that Armenia’s asset forfeiture regime, far from curbing elite corruption, may be serving political ends while shielding loyalists from scrutiny.
