Breaking News: hetq expose All In the Family: Armenian Prime Minister’s Booming Business Empire-3

September 8, 2016 By administrator

By Grisha Balasanyan,

Is He a Prime minister or the Prime owner of Armenia?

We continue to present the companies, doing business in a variety of sectors, owned by Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan and his relatives.

Leasing of Real Estate

Strategic Property Management (SPM) CJSC is fully owned by Argam Abrahamyan. The company’s office is located at 4/2 Amiryan Street in Yerevan. SPM was founded in 2012 and Angin Sargsyan serves as director. The company’s paid-in capital is 300.9 million AMD

According to official Armenian tax data, SPM engages mostly in the wholesale foodstuff, beverage and tobacco sector. Currently, the company has temporarily ceased operations.

“Yes, I am the director. Right now, the company has halted its operations. In general, SPM doesn’t engage in any operation,” Angin Sargsyan said.

When asked why the company was founded in the first place with such a large amount of capital if it didn’t plan to operate any business, Angin Sargsyan replied:

“Sorry, but I will not answer as to why the company was founded. That’s my company’s secret and, as director, I am authorized not to reply. Perhaps you find it absurd that the company doesn’t operate with such capital, but it’s not absurd for me. The company was started but now has ceased to operate. We didn’t know what it was doing. When it starts to operate anew, you’ll hear about it. Call and I’ll tell you what the company is doing.”

Property Solutions Ltd. is the legal successor of Alliance Advisory Center Ltd. The company’s paid-in capital is 75.3 million AMD. 100% of the company’s shares were transferred to Gagik Poghosyan in June 2014.

In order to lease some space, Gagik Poghosyan petitioned the Yerevan Municipality. Based on Decision 3029-A (granted on August 6, 2014), the municipality permitted Kentron-Greening CJSC to lease 1,923.59 square meters of a 43,144.31 square meter plot it owns at 6/1 Khanjyan Street in Yerevan to Property Solutions.

Argam Abrahamyan’s two partners in Transport Development Consortium (TDC) CJSC are not random individuals. Levon Kocharyan (son of Armenia’s second president) and Yerevan resident Vahagn Khachatryan own 33% a piece.

Kocharyan and Khachatryan also own shares in Nayri Insurance; 60% and 40% respectively.

Vanadzor resident Rouben Zatikyan serves as director of TDC. Zatikyan also owns the #46 microbus route. 100% of the shares of Aravel Ltd., which services the fleet of buses, were obtained by TDC in March 2013.

TDC CJSC is registered at the address of Vahagn Khachatryan’s residency. Another company owned by Khachatryan, Grigoryans’ Trans Service Ltd. (, which services three microbus routes in Yerevan) is also registered at the same address.

Transporting CJSC was founded in 2012 and is owned 50/50 by Gagik Poghosyan and his business partner Julieta Sargsyan. The company’s office is located at 4/3 Amiryan Street in Yerevan, in a huge building owned by Argam Abrahamyan.

Transporting CJSC operates the #41 and 45 microbus routes in Yerevan and a number of inter-city routes in Armenia.

Hovik Abrahamyan and his circle of friends also run buses in the town of Artashat and nearby villages.

Mamikon-Narek Ltd. is wholly owned by Henrik Abrahamyan’s daughter Meri Abrahamyan. Yurik Bouniatyan serves as company director. The Company was founded in 2007 to operate taxi services, engage in trade, and produce construction materials. The company owns Taxi Mkhchyan, a taxi service.

Production of construction material and stones

In 2003, Ararat Cement OJSC was privatized and re-launched as Ararat Cement CJSC. Argam Abrahamyan owns 30% of the company and Gagik Tsaroukyan 70%.

Right Stone Ltd. was founded in 2008 and is mostly engaged in stone refinishing and construction. 40% of the company is owned by Argam Abrahamyan, 30% by Kotayk Province resident Garegin Karapetyan, and 30% by Gagik Mnatsakanyan; who also serves as company director.

Jas-Beton Shin Ltd. was founded by Henrik Abrahamyan (brother of Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan) and former MP Armen Poudoyan. They exited the company in 2006 and 100% of the shares reverted to Rouzanna Hovsepyan (Henrik Abrahamyan’s wife). The company produces construction materials.

Metz Armat Ltd. is also a construction company and is fully owned by Henrik Abrahamyan. He serves as its director. The company produces and sells fabricated hosing parts. The company was founded in 2008.

Elz-Nar Ltd. is owned by Diana Abrahamyan (Henrik Abrahamyan’s daughter-in-law). The company sells and packages food and non-food items, as well as construction materials.

Gagik Poghosyan fully owns, and is the director of, Sun-Lus Ltd. founded in 2010. The company’s legal address is registered in the Ararat Province village of Norashen, but neither village mayor Artoush Sargsyan nor his staff could recollect such a company listed in their village. The company engages in advertising, supplying food products to restaurants, hospitals and other public institutions, and the production of construction materials.

Jaguar Animal World Ltd. is listed in the state registry as an organization engaged in the protection and reproduction of rare and nearly extinct wild animals, and as an organizer of ecotourism and hunting tourism events. It was founded in 2013 and is 100% owned by Henrik Abrahamyan.

Director Gabriel Poghosyan told Hetq that the company is currently inactive, but that it is planning projects aimed at protecting wild animals along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

“Right now, the company isn’t doing anything, but in the future it will be engaged in the protection of animals and nothing else. We will protect the bezoar ibex and wild mouflon sheep found in Armenia. We will lease lands adjacent to the Azerbaijani border in order to protect these animals,” Poghosyan told Hetq.

“Animals are fleeing over the border to Armenia after being hunted in Azerbaijan. There should be no hunting on our side so that they can multiply. If they are hunted in Armenia, the animals will simply return to Azerbaijan,” Poghosyan explained.

While the company is fully owned by Henrik Abrahamyan, Gabriel Poghosyan denied any links between Abrahamyan and the company.

Business operated in partnership with foreigners

In contrast to his brother Henrik, Hovik Abrahamyan’s daughter Rebeka Abrahamyan has recently entered the business world. On September 17, 2014, she became 25% owner of Mit Invest Ltd., founded by Arman Mirzoyan just one month earlier. On the same day, two Georgians became 25% owners each of the company. One was Levan Chikovani (executive director and 50% owner of the Czech Wind Energy Investment s.r.o.), and the other was Mindia Sabandze (the owner of several companies). Hetq’s Georgian partners helped us compose the following list of companies owned by the two Georgians.

Yevropa-Bed.am Ltd. is an Armenian-Georgian company founded in 2012. Argam Abrahamyan owns 20%; Armenian MP Vardan Ayvazyan’s son Souren owns 20%, Karen Minasyan-10%; 48% belongs to Georgian citizen Zaour Yakhadze; and Zaza Mikelashvi, another Georgian, owns 2%. Yerevan resident Grigor Sahradyan serves as company director.

Golden MK Ltd. is owned by Gagik Poghosyan (20%), Moscow resident Mikhail Berzukov (40%), and Rouzanna Asoulyan (40%). The director is Rudolf Grigoryan.

Mikhail Bezrukov is a Moscow businessman. He was a master sportsman during the Soviet era and the chief coach of the Soviet Union’s national football team. Since 1992 he’s served as president of the Hockey and Football Club Russia CJSC. As of 2000, Bezrukov has been the director of the Social Adaptation Center NGO Fund.

Bezrukov is the Solnechnogorsk branch president of Russia’s ruling Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party. According to Russian press reports, Bezrukov is a local criminal authority with whom area businessmen must sit down and negotiate with. He owns scores of companies engaged in commerce, real estate, the restaurant trade, sports, and others. On numerous occasions we tried to contact him to clarify what links, if any, his companies have with several companies in Armenia. At first, we were told he wasn’t in town. His staff then asked us to leave a phone number where he could reach us. So far, Bezrukov hasn’t called us.

No explanations from the prime minister and his friends

Only four companies linked to relatives of Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan made it to the list of Armenia’s top 1,000 taxpayers from January-September 2014. They are: Ararat Cement CJSC (in 111^th place with 865 million AMD in taxes paid); Artashat Cannery Plant (135^th place, 647 million AMD); Mkhchyan Fish Food (406^th place, 212.550 million AMD); Navti Gaz (611thplace, 126 million AMD).

Thus, the other companies owned by the prime minister’s relatives paid 74 million AMD less than the company that what listed in 1,000^th place given that the latter paid exactly 74 million.

The assets of the Abrahamyans and their relatives do not end here. They own 53.24 hectares of agricultural zoned land in the village of Mkhchyan, some ten pieces of real estate near Yerevan, and an equal number of cars. There are also hundreds of hectares of grape vineyards in Artashat and nearby villages; natural gas filling stations outside Yerevan; gasoline stations and casinos along the highways of Armenia; and a resort house in Crimea (that was purchased in 2007 for US$7 million. News outlets in Armenia wrote about the Crimea resort several times and the prime minister never denied the news.

There are also mechanical and knitting factories in Artashat, an auto park, lands adjacent to the Sirious Plant, wine and cement factories, a resort house and five hectares of land in Tzaghkatzor, apartments in Yerevan, a private house near Lake Sevan, etc. The list is never-ending because most of these properties are registered under the names of others.

Back when Hovik Abrahamyan served as the president of the Armenian parliament, we wrote to him asking that he explain the source for all the money appearing on his financial disclosure statement. We also wanted to know whether certain factories belonged to him. Just as now, when he serves as the prime minister, he failed to answer our inquiries.

We couldn’t get any clarifications from the prime minister’s son Argam Abrahamyan. Argam is the owner and director of Imperium Group Ltd. located at 4/7 Amiryan Street in Yerevan. We called the directors of companies located there (which have ties to the Abrahamyans) in order to get the telephone number of Imperium Group. All the directors told us that there was no Imperium Group located there. Angin Sargsyan, Deputy Director of Imperium Plaza CJSC (located at the same address) was surprised to hear that a company by that name is registered there.

We also failed to get any clarification from Gagik Poghosyan, a relative of the Abrahamyans. Both Robert Gasparyan (his son-in-law) and Angin Sargsyan told Hetq that they weren’t authorized to give his number. We then asked Robert Gasparyan to get a message to Poghosyan to call Hetq. He did, but told us nothing.

People in Armenia know Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan by his nickname “Mouse”.

The following is taken from an interview that the newspaper 168 Zham had with Abrahamyan regarding the use of his nickname.

In an interview with the newspaper 168 Zham, PM Abrahamyan was asked if he felt insulted when the press refers to him by his nickname “Mouk” (mouse). In response, Abrahamyan said he had no such complexes and that if certain news outlets got a kick from calling him by his nickname they should continue to do so.

“It doesn’t faze me in the least. If they think they are insulting me or irritating me by doing so, they are wrong. By the way, I see nothing wrong with people having nicknames,” Abrahamyan replied, adding that it was better if people had childhood nicknames than the fake monikers of various sponsors and owners of the press.

Abrahamyan explained that his nickname stems from a childhood incident where he ate half a bowl of Christmas candy. “My grandma, realizing I ate the candy, laughed and called me the mouse of the house,” he said.

The prime minister confessed that nothing could be hidden from him because he gets into every nook and cranny and locates what he wants – candy.

Read more: http://hetq.am/eng/news/58352/all-in-the-family-armenian-prime-ministers-booming-business-empire-3.html

Syria’s Assad appoints new prime minister

June 22, 2016 By administrator

Syria’s Assad appoints new prime minister

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has asked the country’s electricity minister to form a new government.

Imad Khamis was tasked with forming the new cabinet on Wednesday, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported.

Sources had earlier told the Russian English-language news channel RT that the new cabinet will include 12 new ministers, such as the justice minister, health minister and the minister of electricity.

According to the report, the key portfolios will remain intact as the ministers of foreign affairs, interior, defense and finance will not be changed.

Khamis is to submit his proposal for new ministerial appointments in the coming days, AFP reported.

He is a 54-year-old engineer, who is to replace Wael al-Halqi who had held the post since August 2012.

Khamis had served as Syria’s minister of electricity since 2011 and is an electrical engineer. He has been under sanctions by the European Union since March 2012.

The changes come more than two months after parliamentary elections were held in the country on April 13, in which a high voter turnout was recorded.

A number of opposition parties were running in the race, but armed opposition groups boycotted the vote and called it illegitimate. Parliament members are elected for a four-year term in Syria.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis it blames on some foreign states for more than five years.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since March 2011. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

Backed by the Russian air cover, Syrian forces have managed to liberate many militant-held areas over the past few months.

ARMENIA: The Prime Minister says he wants to strengthen the fight against corruption

May 30, 2016 By administrator

Armenian PM coraption Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan ordered the Armenian government to reduce “corruption risks” in the management of public procurement, management has been repeatedly criticized by dog anti-corruption guard.
Abrahamian said that the Finance Ministry will “further enhance transparency in various stages of this process,” at the opening of a weekly session of his cabinet on Thursday. He said the ministry

Turkey: Criminal complaint against prime minister Davutoğlu and Aşkale mayor

March 14, 2016 By administrator

Human Rights Association (İHD) will file criminal complaints against Prime Minister Davutoğlu, who have been criticized because of his “Armenian gangs” statement, and Aşkale Mayor Başaran who said “I gratefully commemorate our honorable ancestors who wiped the Armenians off.”

İHD İstanbul Branch Committee Against Racism and Discrimination declared that they will file criminal complaints against Prime Minister Davutoğlu and Aşkale Mayor Başaran, “because they praised the Armenian Genocide and threatened Kurdish people with genocide”.

Here is the call for press statement that will be made on March 8 at 13.30 in front of Çağlayan Courthouse:

“In a time when crimes against humanity have been committed in the war against Kurds, Prime Minister, on February 27, said that ‘HDP is in cooperation with Russia like Armenian gangs’ and on March 3, Aşkale Mayor Enver Başaran ‘gratefully’ commemorated the Armenian Genocide during a ‘theatrical Armenian massacre’ that was played by children and we will file criminal complaints against them because they praised the Armenian Genocide and threatened Kurdish people with genocide.

On March 8 at 13.30, we will make a press statement about our complaint in the parking lot in front of the Gate C of Çağlayan Courthouse.

We will invite everyone who refuses genocide, war, crimes against humanity and oppression to the press.”

What happened?

On February 27, during a rally in Bingöl, Prime Minister Davutoğlu said, “HDP is in cooperation with Russia like Armenian gangs; they open a representative agency in Moscow.” Davutoğlu’s racist statements were brought to the parliament’s agenda by Garo Paylan. Moreover, Armenia also reacted to those statements and Armenian Minister of Interior Edward Nalbandyan criticized Davutoğlu by saying “It is obvious that nothing changed in the mentality of the governing elite of Turkey in a century.”

In Aşkale province of Erzurum, a play was staged at the celebration ceremony of “the 98^th anniversary of Aşkale’s liberation.” In this play, Armenians portrayed as people who burn down mosques and locals killed the Armenians. Speaking after the ceremony, Aşkale Mayor Enver Başaran said: “I gratefully commemorate our honorable ancestors who wiped the Armenians off. History of Armenian people is full of blood and betrayal. The Armenian gangs are betrayal organizations and their hatred against this land and noble Turkish nation has no end. Now, these Armenian gangs have been performing separatist activities with PKK.”

Breaking News: In an upset, the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau is projected to become Canada’s next prime minister

October 19, 2015 By administrator

Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party at a campaign rally this month. Credit Chris Wattie/Reuters

Monday, October 19, 2015 10:08 PM EDT
Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, has unseated the Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, according to a projection by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday night.

Greece names new interim prime minister

August 27, 2015 By administrator

The Greek president has appointed an interim prime minister as the country prepares for fresh elections in September. Vassiliki Thanou’s selection comes after all the major parties were unable to form governments.

Vassiliki Thanou was appointed caretaker prime minister on Thursday by Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Thanou, head of the country’s Supreme Court, will be the first woman to hold the position as the country gears up for snap elections likely to be held on September 20.

The 65-year-old will assume the post later on Thursday evening, and then appoint a cabinet to be sworn in the following day. Her appointment comes after parliament’s three largest parties were unable to find willing coalition partners.

Outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last week after only seven months in office. Tsipras, facing a revolt from within his left-wing Syriza party, hopes to bolster support for the country’s new bailout program with a fresh election.

Greece accepted its third bailout since 2010 in July, enraging hardliners among Syriza’s ranks who saw Tsipras’ actions, after running on a campaign against austerity, as betrayal to the country’s creditors.

Despite this flip, Tsipras is expected to emerge victorious in the September polls, although it is uncertain if he will get enough votes to govern alone or be forced to seek another coalition, though he has already ruled out aligning with any opposition centrist parties.

For his part, Tsipras’ maverick former Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis told Reuters news agency he will not partake in the “sad” elections.

Tsipras has accused Varoufakis of “losing credibility among his interlocutors” during debt negotiations with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

es/jil (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Yerevan, Prime Minister Rejects Reversal on Energy Hike, As Russia Urges ‘Compromise’

June 25, 2015 By administrator

Protesters on Baghramyan Avenue continue their demands into the fourth day (Photolure)

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian on Thursday defended state regulators’ decision to raise electricity prices and urged thousands of protesters to unblock a major street in Yerevan on the fourth day of their nonstop demonstrations against the controversial measure.

Abrahamian also announced that the Armenian government will compensate some 105,000 low-income families for the more than 16 percent tariff increases authorized by the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) last week. Monthly poverty benefits paid to them will be raised by 2,000 drams ($4.2), he said.

The Armenian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimates that the tariff hike will cost the average family living below the official poverty line only 1,400 drams in additional monthly expenditures.

“I would like to appeal to our activists, organizers of those rallies and say that such actions will lead nowhere,” Abrahamian said at the weekly meeting of his cabinet. “I am calling on them to be more constructive. The government is ready to discuss any issue that is being raised by them.”

Abrahamian insisted that the price hike reflects “objective realities” of the Armenian energy sector. He echoed the PSRC’s arguments that the Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA) utility needs to be compensated for last year’s depreciation of the Armenian dram, a longer-than-anticipated stoppage of the Metsamor nuclear plant’s reactor and decreased water levels on rivers fueling hydroelectric stations.

The ENA has had to buy larger volumes of much more expensive electricity generated at Armenian thermal power plants. The company owned by a Russian energy giant currently has over $225 million in outstanding debts to power plants and banks.

Critics say, however, that the ENA’s losses are the result of corruption and mismanagement. They also point to the company’s extravagant expenses, including on luxury cars and office space for its senior executives, which have been disclosed by the Armenian media in recent months.

Abrahamian sought to dispel these claims accepted by many Armenians. “I don’t exclude that there have been abuses [within the ENA,]” he said. “But I want to declare with utmost responsibility that regardless of the scale of possible abuses inside the company, not a single penny of them was calculated into the tariff.”

“Such abuses stemming from poor management have hurt the company’s owner, rather than consumers, seeing as its profits have decreased,” added the premier.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian

Abrahamian went on to assert that failure to raise the tariffs would disrupt electricity supplies in Armenia and lead to the kind of crippling power shortages which the country had endured in the early 1990s.

No To Plunder, a pressure group leading the protests, was quick to dismiss these statements. One of its leaders, Vaghinak Shushanian, said the protesters will not leave Marshal Baghramyan Avenue until the authorities meet their demands.

“If he has so much courage, he should come here and talk to us,” Shushanian told RFE/RL’ Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “Let him appear before the people here and say from the podium that … this measure is justified.”

Like senior law-enforcement officials, Abrahamian said that the nonstop protests on the avenue leading to the presidential palace are illegal. But he stopped short of threatening to forcibly disperse the mostly young people demonstrating there.

The chief of the Armenian police, Vladimir Gasparian, also did not voice such threats when he visited the scene and talked to some protesters early in the morning.“Stay peaceful and don’t provoke us,” he said.

Gasparian further said that law-enforcement authorities are investigating violence against more than a dozen journalists, including three RFE/RL correspondents, perpetrated by his officers during Tuesday’s violent crackdown on the Bagramian Avenue protesters. “Who said that we can’t have shortcomings and make mistakes?” he told reporters. “The key thing is to identify and address them.”

Gasparian was accompanied by Levon Yeranosian, one of his deputies who the journalists say personally ordered the violence.

Russia Urges ‘Compromise Solution’ To Armenian Standoff
Russia has called on the Armenian authorities to make concessions to thousands of people holding nonstop demonstrations in Yerevan against the latest increase in electricity prices in Armenia.

Significantly, a senior Russian official also disputed claims by some Russian pro-government politicians and pundits that Western powers are behind the continuing standoff between Armenian protesters and riot police.

“We count on the common sense and wisdom of the Armenian leadership,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said late on Wednesday, according to the RIA Novosti agency. “According to our information, one can expect that a compromise decision on issues raised by the demonstrators will be found.”

“We are awaiting news from Yerevan,” added Karasin. He did not specify whether the Russian government is ready to assist in such a settlement.

Karasin cast doubt on the credibility of these claims, saying that they “need to be proved.” “We will be carefully looking into everything that preceded [the Yerevan protests,] but I wouldn’t jump into such hasty conclusions,” he said.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow is “very closely” monitoring the dramatic developments in Armenia and hopes that there will be no “violations of the law.”

Belgian Prime Minister recognizes the Armenian Genocide

June 18, 2015 By administrator

By Siranush Ghazanchyan

Belgian Prime Minister said that the tragic events committed between 1915-1917 in the Ottoman Empire should be “considered a genocide,” Public Rdaio of Armenia reports, quoting Belgian Le Soir.

Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged Thursday on behalf of his government, the Armenian genocide a century ago committed by the Young Turk government.

“The relationship between history and the future are occasionally complicated. My position is well known, I am of the view that the tragic events should be labeled as genocide, and that is the position of the Belgian government,” Charles Michel declared in the Parliament today.

Welcoming this statement, MP Peter De Roover (N-VA) announced the filing of a resolution allowing to move forward on this issue.

Ottawa Catholicos Aram I Meets with Canada’s Prime Minister

June 4, 2015 By administrator

Catholicos Aram I meets with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

OTTAWA—His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, met with Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, on June 3, Horizon Weekly reports.

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Pontiff expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister on Canada’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, discussed his concerns regarding the conflict in Syria and the impact it has on the Christians and Armenians in the area since its eruption in 2011. His Holiness also informed Mr. Harper on the lawsuit the Catholicosate of Cilicia has filed in Turkey’s Constitutional Court, requesting the return of the historical Catholicosate of Sis, which was forcefully taken by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, as were all Armenian churches and institutions.

During this visit, His Holiness Aram I also decorated Stephen Harper with the Prince of Cilicia medal, the highest insignia of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

His Holiness was joined by the following delegation, Bishop Meghrig Parikian, Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Most Reverend Father Housig Mardirossian, Ecumenic Relations Officer of the Catholicosate, Krikor Der Ghazarian, Chairperson of the Executive Council of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Dr. Girair Basmadjian, member of the Central Executive Council of the Catholicosate, Raffi Donabedian, Chairperson of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, and Hagop Der Khatchadourian, President of the Armenian National Committee International Council.

Turkey: Erdogan Davutoglu succeeded as head of government

August 22, 2014 By administrator

The Prime Minister and president-elect of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not surprisingly, did on Thursday his loyal Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu his successor at the head of the Islamic-conservative ruling party in Turkey and government.

Following a meeting of several hours the staff of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the strong man of the country has unveiled the name of the runner in front of an audience of party officials , to thunderous applause.

“I think our candidate for the presidency of the party and as Prime Minister realize the ideals of the new Turkey + + (his election slogan, ed) and the objectives of the AKP in 2023 (the centenary of the Republic),” he t he said.

Soon appointed Davutoglu rose to the podium to promise to “Mr. President “Erdogan to continue the” restoration movement “of the country he committed there twelve years and ensure its total allegiance.

“No seed can be planted discord between us,” he started.

Despite efforts by Erdogan to maintain some suspense, the choice of this university for 55 years as a dolphin was only a open secret, completely fanned on Tuesday by the outgoing head of state Abdullah Gül.

Davutoglu works alongside the current prime minister since his arrival at the head of the government in 2003 and was first diplomatic adviser in 2009 before taking the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

AKP deputy from his native province of Konya (center), this polyglot is the architect of the new Turkish foreign minister, called “neo-Ottoman”, which saw the return of Turkey on the world stage, including the Middle East.

The results of this so-called “zero problems with neighbors” policy has however greatly degraded. Since the “Arab Spring of 2011”, Ankara appalling relations with Egypt, Syria and Israel, once his ally.

In the opinion of many observers, the future Prime Minister Davutoglu is unlikely to upset the authority of the new president Erdogan, who won the first round of the presidential election with nearly 52% of the vote.

Unity and loyalty –

Aged 60, Mr. Erdogan plans to amend the constitution to strengthen the powers of the presidency, which had been largely ceremonial.

The opposition has announced its intention to do everything to prevent presidentialization announced the plan, described as “autocratic drift.” “Turkey has entered the era of Prime Ministers puppets,” lamented Thursday the head of the main opposition party, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.Le Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses the audience at the meeting of the AKP Ankara, 21 August 2014

During their informal awarding authority, the two men did play air from the union and complicity.

“The determination of my brother Davutoglu combat parallel structure played a lot in my choice,” Erdogan said, in an allusion to the dissident movement of Imam Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of masterminding a “conspiracy “against him. “Our enemies will be disappointed,” he said.

For its part, the future head of the government has promised to maintain at all costs the “unity” of the AKP, while the announced return to the party of outgoing President Abdullah Gül fueling rumors of differences with his head.

Now chosen by his side, Mr. Davutoglu is expected to formally take the helm of the AKP during a scheduled August 27th extraordinary congress. As soon invested, August 28, President Erdogan will add to form a new government.

For several days, the Turkish press abuzz with predictions about the name of his successor at the head of Turkish diplomacy.

Topping the list of contenders, the director of the intelligence services (MIT) Hakan Fidan, a faithful considered the “keeper of secrets” of the era Erdogan, Minister for European Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu or the Culture Omer Celik .

The financial markets, meanwhile, eyes fixed on the future holders of economic portfolios in the new government.

Investors are concerned about a possible departure of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Ali Babacan and his colleague Mehmet Simsek finance, they consider the main architects of the economic success and financial stability Turkey.

AFP