On April 16 at about 14.00 the representatives of the RA Service of Compulsory
Execution of Judicial Acts arrived at the editorial office of “GALA” TV company
of Gyumri and demanded that the use of the city TV tower be stopped. As it has
been reported, on April 14 the RA Civil Court of Appeals left the ruling of
the court of general jurisdiction of Shirak region on the dispute between Gyumri
municipality and the “GALA” founder, “CHAP” LLC in force. By this “CHAP” was
committed to stop the use of the TV tower and dissemble the equipment installed
there (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, April
11-17, 2008). The head of “CHAP” LLC Vahan Khachatrian asked the compulsory
executors to provide him time to implement the ruling, since the dissembling
of the equipment can only be made by experts, yet he was refused. As a result,
the cables, connecting the equipment with the antenna, were switched off and
sealed, and “GALA” was deprived of air.
In the morning of April 17, in accordance with the agreement reached earlier,
the TV company was visited by the US Charge d’Affaires in Armenia Joseph Pennington.
Shortly after his departure, compulsory executors came to the editorial office
again: the seals put the day before were removed and in the afternoon “GALA”
went on air.
According to the communication released on April 18, the head of the RA Compulsory
Execution Service Gagik Ayvazian characterized the actions of its staff towards
“GALA” as a “cautionary disconnection”.
