On August 21, 2026, the Anti-Corruption Committee opened criminal proceedings over the transfer of a former cinema building on Komitas Square in Vagharshapat. The case was launched on 3 counts under Part 1 of Article 446 of the Criminal Code, which concerns official negligence.
The proceedings stem from a review by the Department for the Protection of State Interests at the Central Military Prosecutor’s Office. According to prosecutors, the building was sold to a private individual in 2004 for the dram equivalent of $55,000 without a legally required property valuation. About three months after the sale, and with no actual change in the condition of the property, its cadastral value was listed at 218 million 215 thousand drams.
Prosecutors also said they found issues in the registration of lease rights to the adjacent state-owned land plot and in its subsequent privatization.
Hetq reported back in 2023 that Ava Granit CJSC, headed by Yerevan City Council My Step faction member Vazgen Darbinyan, bought the former Garun cinema building for 160 million drams and planned to build a multifunctional residential complex on the site. A multi-apartment building is now under construction there.
The Garun cinema was built in 1976. Its architects were Sargis Gurzadyan and Mikael Aleksanyan, and the building is regarded as an example of regional modernism.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Garun, like many cinemas in Armenia, was privatized. Under government decision No. 55 of August 19, 1995, the state enterprise Ejmiatsin Kinotsants was privatized through the creation of Vahagn CJSC. At that time, the building was valued at 476 thousand drams. By a decision of the Ejmiatsin mayor, the company was also granted a 3,170-square-meter land plot on lease for maintenance of the building and surrounding area.
Later, after loan obligations were not met on time, the building became bank property in May 2001. Credit Yerevan also received the lease right to the land plot.
In 2003, an assignment agreement was signed between Yerevan Credit Bank and the Ministry of Defense. Because the bank had gone bankrupt and could not return the funds held in the ministry’s accounts, the Ministry of Defense received assets with a total value of $355,000, including the Echmiadzin cinema building valued at $55,000.
Under government decision No. 282-A of March 11, 2004, the Ministry of Defense was allowed to sell the building directly to Echmiadzin resident Razmik Zarbabyan. The sale contract was signed on March 23, 2004, and the price was set at $55,000.
Razmik Zarbabyan’s son, Artyom Zarbabyan, had earlier told Hetq that the building was bought with the intention of reopening the cinema, but financial difficulties prevented the family from making the necessary investment and using the property for its intended purpose.
On October 16, 2018, Razmik Zarbabyan sold the 1,939-square-meter building and the 0.266-hectare land plot allocated for its maintenance to Echmiadzin resident Anush Hovhannisyan for 4 million 900 thousand drams. Hetq had questioned at the time whether that amount reflected the real transaction price, suggesting the actual value of the property may have been concealed.
Then, on February 2, 2023, Anush Hovhannisyan sold the building, valued at 207 million drams, to Ava Granit CJSC for 160 million drams. At the same time, the property was mortgaged to Ameriabank CJSC. The building’s cadastral value was reported at about 203 million drams.
