Armenian prosecutor-general upbeat on cooperation with Georgia

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
26 Jul 05

In an interview [with Hayots Ashkarh], Armenian Prosecutor-General
Agvan Ovsepyan commented on the results of his recent official visit
to Tbilisi

and details of his meeting with Georgian counterpart.

[Agvan Ovsepyan] During my Georgian counterpart’s[ Zurab Adeishvili]
visit to Armenia in spring, we came to an agreement to sign a
memorandum on cooperation between the prosecutor-general’s offices of
our countries

in the judicial sphere. During our visit to Tbilisi on 21 July the
memorandum was signed. [Passage omitted: the details of the memorandum
are presented]

[Correspondent] In what specific areas can the law-enforcement
agencies of the two countries support each other?

[Ovsepyan] At present, the common areas we share with our Georgian
counterparts as far as crime is concerned are as follows: cattle theft
across Armenia-Georgia border, illegal timber production and
smuggling. We also register economic crimes, such as evasion of tax
and customs duties. The problems of forged Armenian excise duty stamps
are also very important. These

forged excise duty stamps are printed in third countries, in Turkey,
to be precise, and are exported to Armenia through Georgia. I have
prepared a report based on such facts and sent it to the relevant
international bodies asking them to help us close down this source of
forged excise duty stamps.

By the way, during my meeting with Georgian Prosecutor-General

Zurab Adeishvili we made an arrangement that the Prosecutor-General’s

Offices of Georgia and Armenia will support the prosecutor-general’s

office of Akhalkalak financially and operationally. We also arranged
our next meeting to take place in Akhalkalak.

[Correspondent] Did you discuss the case of Vladimir Arutyunov
[arrested for an attempt on the US president’s life] during your
meeting with the Georgian prosecutor-general?

[Ovsepyan] Within the framework of the visit our delegation did not

pay special attention to this case as it does not involve an Armenian
citizen or affects our state interests. But during the meeting,
Adeishvili and I had indeed mention this matter. [Passage omitted:
Arutyunov was born and brought up in Tbilisi, and it is not clear yet
if his father was Armenian or not.]

The most important is that Arutyunov has nothing to do with Armenia.
Moreover, during our meeting with representatives of the Georgian
law-enforcement agencies they declared that this person behaves
inadequately. During our joint press conference with Adeishvili one of
the correspondents asked if the grenade was produced in Armenia,
Adeishvili replied that a mistranslation by Azerbaijan’s ambassador to
Georgia caused the spread of false information. “Armeyskaya granata”
[army grenade] was translated as “Armyanskaya granata” – that is,
“Armenian grenade”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress