The Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office has charged David Papazian, the former head of the now dissolved Armenian State Interests Foundation (ANIF), with forgery, money laundering, and theft. Foreign human rights group has also called for an investigation into Papazian’s alleged involvement in war crimes in Gaza.
According to the criminal proceeding launched on Friday, Papazian is being investigated over the alleged forgery of documents, stamps, seals, forms, as well as computer theft, and money laundering.
Papazian served as ANIF’s executive director from 2019 until January 2024. The foundation was established in 2019 and was dissolved in 2024, with Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan serving as the head of ANIF's board of directors until 2022. At the time, Avinyan was Armenia’s deputy prime minister. A criminal case related to ANIF's activities was initiated in December 2023 regarding alleged unspecified abuses.
Along with Papazian, Armenian investigative media Hetq reported that prosecution has also been initiated against Bella Manukyan, former director of Armenia’s Entrepreneur + State Anti-Crisis Investment Fund (ESIF), and Karine Andreasyan, director of CFW, who has links to Avinyan’s wife.
Hetq also noted that all three organisations ‘had come under media scrutiny for financial irregularities and mismanagement of state funds’.
In March, Hetq revealed that on 4 May 2023, the Armenian government invested ֏1.5 billion ($3.8 million) in CFW. The company received the funds just eight days after its creation and is owned by companies registered offshore in the US. The money came from the Entrepreneur + State Anti-Crisis Investments Fund, established on 22 May 2020 by ANIF.
Gaza war crime accusations
Papazian was at the centre of another notorious case shortly before his charging by the Prosecutor’s Office.
On 14 August, the Middle East Eye reported that the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) based in the UK has submitted a complaint to the Armenian authorities calling for an urgent investigation into Papazian, who reportedly chairs the board of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American non-profit established to distribute aid in Gaza.
GHF has come under criticism with many rights organisations warning that it could be liable for complicity in war crimes for the mass killings of Palestinian seeking to acquire aid through its sites in Gaza.
The Middle East Eye reported that the AOHR claimed that there was ‘credible evidence and documentation’ that Papazian ‘may have been involved in, or facilitated, actions that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip’.
The AOHR claims that Papazian is the president of the foundation's council in Switzerland and is also a founding board member.
On Monday, the Armenian authorities told local media that they had been investigating the complaint.
The Middle East Eye has also quoted multiple sources criticising GHF’s actions in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which accused it of institutionalising ‘starvation and dehumanisation’. An Associated Press investigation found that ‘American contractors working under the GHF used live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray on Palestinians seeking food’.
According to Middle East Eye, ‘at least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,500 wounded while collecting food or queuing for assistance at GHF sites or en route to its centres’.
The GHF has denied the accusations.
The Middle East Eye cited AOHR’s complaint, in which the rights group alleged that in his role in the foundation, Papazian ‘played a key role in designing, endorsing, and overseeing the implementation of an operational aid delivery model that has led to mass civilian harm’.
The complaint further claimed that Papazian was ‘fully aware’ of reports by UN bodies documenting acts of genocide, including the use of starvation as a weapon, yet proceeded ‘in pursuit of sordid financial gain’.
‘The conduct of Mr. Papazian […] meets the threshold of legal complicity and renders him criminally liable under both Armenian law and international criminal law’, the complaint reportedly said.
Papazian has declined to comment on the accusations.
Yousef Bardouka
