Epress.am News from Armenia
Ginosi, a global short-stay apartment chain with a branch in Armenia, recently suspended its corporate sponsorship of Yerevan-based Radio Van upon learning of discriminatory remarks that Radio Van Director Shushanik Arevshatyan made against gay and lesbian people which were published on the radio station's website and blog (in Russian only).
In an open letter to Radio Van management, Ginosi CEO Areg Ginosian writes that the discovery "puts Ginosi.com as a corporate sponsor of Radio Van in an awkward position not only with respect to our gay and lesbian customers, employees and business relations, but also as a company that views corporate social responsibility and equal opportunity in its business practices as a top priority."
Apart from immediately suspending "all future sponsorship plans" with Radio Van, the company informed the local radio station that it is "disappointed" and "feels put down" by the organization.
"Furthermore, this experience has forced us to review our own due diligence process with respect to our corporate sponsorship programs. Namely, we will work to put procedures and processes in place to ensure that we will never again unknowingly finance bigotry.
"With this letter we say good bye to Radio Van and finally, we believe that a public apology by Radio Van to the LGBT community is in order," concludes Ginosian.
Shushanik, Arevshatyan responded by posting a comment below the letter on the Ginosi Facebook page, which has since been removed (presumably by Arevshatyan herself).
The comment, written in Russian (pictured in the screen shot below), read, "I will gladly refrain from your as well as any other organization that speaks to us from such a position. Goodbye, gentlemen — oh, and one more thing: thank you for the free advertising, now more people will reach us!"
Updated on May 30, 2014: "Ginosi Corporation" was changed simply to "Ginosi" to better reflect the actual name of the company. The company's description was also updated.