Gagik Tsarukyan: from armwrestling to big politics.

The leader of the coalition party "Prosperous Armenia" (PPA) is quite a controversial figure

Ishkhan Harutyunyan, Yerevan, specially for VK

The leader of the coalition party "Prosperous Armenia" (PPA), Gagik Tsarukyan, better known as "Dodi Gago", whom the media call the main oligarch of the republic, is quite a controversial figure. On the one hand, Tsarukyan is the leader of the second political force in Armenia, which, moreover, intends to fight with the Republicans in the first place in May. On the other hand, many in Armenia perceive him only as a puppet of former President Robert Kocharian, who, being in the shadows, realizes all his plans through the PPA.

Tsarukyan’s nickname, which he received when still in his childhood (Armenia is a small country, and everybody is known to everybody there), can be translated as “Stupid Gagik.” An anecdote is popular in Armenia: Vladimir Putin, passing by Tsarukyan’s luxury mansion by the road from Lake Sevan to Yerevan, took it for another cultural monument, and when told that this is the house of Stupid Gagik, said: "This Gagik is not that stupid. " Maybe that's why Tsarukyan rushed to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his "beautiful and impressive victory" in the presidential elections. The fact that from Yerevan, apart from the leader of the PPA, only President Serzh Sargsyan and the Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan congratulated the elected Russian president, can be considered as evidence of the "calibre" of the political heavyweight Tsarukyan.

Tsarukian’s way to the world of big business and politics began with armwrestling. In 1996 the Armenian athlete became third in the over 110 kg weight category at an armwrestling competition in Virginia Beach, held under the auspices of the World Armwrestling Federation. The athlete started his business activity back in the 1980s. Today Tsarukyan is considered to be the most eminent businessman in Armenia. The multidisciplinary trust “Multi Group,” founded by him in 1995, includes: the Abovyan brewery "Kotayk", the Yerevan chemical-pharmaceutical factory, a chain of furniture stores, the Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory "Ararat", which is the exclusive supplier of "Noah" brandy to the Kremlin, the largest cement factory in the South Caucasus, "Ararat", a network of plants for the industrial processing of stone “Multi Stone”, and many other industrial and commercial facilities throughout the country. According to rumours, Tsarukyan’s capital is estimated at several hundred million dollars. It is noteworthy that the personal attitude to him in Armenia is positive, or at least without malice.

Tsarukyan started his political activity in 2003, after being elected a deputy, and in the 2007 parliamentary elections Tsarukyan’s party came second after the ruling Republican Party, gaining 204 thousand votes. It is currently represented in Parliament by a faction of 29 members (in total the National Assembly of Armenia has 131 members) and supports the development of Armenian-Russian relations and strategic alliances.

In the 2008 presidential elections Tsarukyan’s party supported the candidacy of the Republicans’ leader Serzh Sargsyan, later joining the ruling coalition with the RPA, "Rule of Law" and "Dashnaktsutiun." However, in the forthcoming parliamentary elections the PPA is going to participate independently. Neither the party nor Tsarukyan personally have decided yet about the question of supporting the candidacy of the current President Sargsyan in the election of 2013.

Tsarukyan has a reputation as an exemplary family man. He is in his first marriage with his former classmate Dzhavair and raises six children. His father Kolya Tsarukyan is engaged in social activities. His mother Rosa Tsarukyan directs the research and production center Multi Agro, being the honorary chairman of the Council of Women in the PPA. Charity and participation in various sponsorship projects have a special place in Tsarukyan’s biography.

In 2003 the owner of Multi Group became the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia, and now sponsors it on his own, distributing rewards in the form of cars and apartments to Armenian athletes who have attained success in international competitions, out of his personal funds. The politician and businessman, does not forget villagers either, carries out various agricultural programs in the regions of Armenia.

During the years of his activity as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, Tsarukyan has gathered a vast electorate. The PPA, like other political forces of the republic, is supported by its leader’s name and authority among the people, especially in the Kotayk region, in one of whose villages, Arindj, Tsarukyan lives. Possessing a financial and industrial empire, Tsarukyan can engage in the employment of young professionals in his enterprises. The PPA pays for young people's studies at university, mainly from the regions of the country, up to free travel for students on buses belonging to the party to the capital and back. The PPA generally focuses on young cadres, promoting them not only in the party line, but also in some sectors of the economy and law. Therefore, the Youth and the Progressive Parties of Armenia, which consist mainly of young people, last year united with Tsarukyan’s party. A large part of Armenian youth sympathizes, if not with the PPA, then, at least, with Tsarukyan personally, which undoubtedly will affect the outcome of the May parliamentary elections. However, it is not only youth filling the party ranks. Just recently, the PPA was newly replenished. At its Congress, the United Labor Party of Armenia, headed by the oligarch Gurgen Arsenyan, decided to participate in the forthcoming elections on a single list with the PPA, and before that Tsarukyan's party had absorbed several small political parties which voluntarily joined its ranks.

However, like any barrel of honey, Tsarukyan’s has its fly in the ointment, namely, the ex-President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. According to political observers, the PPA has two leaders: the formal one, in the figure of Tsarukyan, and the hidden one, in the figure of Kocharyan, who formed the core of the party personnel in 2006. They say that it is Kocharyan to whom the lion's share of Tsarukyan’s business belongs. It's no secret that Kocharyan and his family have a vast fortune, estimated at reaching $4 billion. Thus, Tsarukyan and the PPA serve as a kind of guarantor of keeping these billions in the hands of Kocharyan in the event of any change of power in Armenia. The purpose of the PPA is very simple and clear - to be part of the government at any cost. And in this case, the odious Kocharyan is not the best tool for Tsarukyan. However, neither Kocharyan nor Tsarukyan can exist separately from each other, given the oligarchic system of arrangements existing in Armenia today. These arrangements are strictly followed by the oligarchs, that is, the senior officials of Armenia. However, it seems that Tsarukyan is not inclined to follow the coalition memorandum signed with the Republican Party as strictly. In response, the Republicans periodically test the PPA’s strength, using all possible machinations up to sending "Trojan horses". The last such "Trojan horse" to enter the ranks of the PPA was the deputy head of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs, Vardan Bostanjyan, who, according to rumors, has completely lost Tsarukyan’s confidence.

One measure in the spirit of black PR was a video posted on several websites about an instance of cruelty to animals, which allegedly took place on the territory adjacent to the mansion of Tsarukyan. The oligarch has a weakness for lions, which he keeps in cages in the courtyard of his vast estate, situated on a hill in Arindj. Given that other Armenian oligarchs do not have such a weakness, Tsarukian was quickly accused of abuse of animals. The video showed footage of two lion cubs, kept in some private zoo, to whose mercy a live donkey was given in the presence of the public; the donkey was soon shot because the cubs could not overcome him. Tsarukyan denies that this cruelty occurred on the territory of his estate, while his spokesman qualified the video as "a small episode in the information war in Armenian reality." Tsarukyan himself said that he will sue the authors for slander, but for mysterious reasons he has not done so yet.

In spite of the black PR, Kocharian’s fly in the ointment, envy and similar factors, with support from the large part of the youth, peasants, and urban residents, Tsarukyan and his party are confident enough to go forward, intending to become a parliamentary majority. This belief is shared by sociologists, according to whom the battle for first place will unfold precisely between the PPA and the ruling Republicans. According to forecasts of the head of the sociological centre "Sociometer", Agaron Adibekyan, in the May elections to the National Assembly the absolute favourites will be the ruling Republican Party and the PPA. According to initial polls, if elections were held now, the RPA would get 39% of respondents' votes, and the PPA - 36%, while the Armenian National Congress would get only 8.5%, “Dashnaktsutyun” - 6.1%, and the "Rule of Law" and "Legacy" would get 5.1% each. Somewhat different from the predictions of the Armenian sociologists are the results of a poll conducted by the Eurasian Cooperation Fund commissioned by the U.S. National Democratic Institute for the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan. According to the survey, 23% are now ready to vote for the Republican Party, and 24% - for the PPA . However, given that the administrative resources are in the hands of the ruling Republican Party, and given the pitfalls in Armenian domestic politics, it is still early to talk about the victory of Tsarukyan and his team at the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Too much is at stake in this fight. However, even in the case of realization of the worst-case scenario for the PPA, Tsarukyan’s party will still come second in the parliamentary elections. In this case, it will have the perspective of another coalition with the Republicans and inevitably supporting the candidature of Mr. Serzh Sargsyan at the presidential elections in 2013.