8.5 THOUSAND DOLLARS WILL BE RETURNED TO YOU BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO RETURN 6 MILLION DRAMS

KarabakhOpen
16-01-2008 14:03:36

Last year we published the story of Oliver Rakidjian, Armen de Shushi,
who arrived in Karabakh in 2004 to live and to work here. At first,
the government of Karabakh and the town hall of Shushi supported
Armen but for over a year Armen is gradually losing his property
and business due to bureaucratic, legal and other hindrances. He has
turned to different agencies but in vain.

The story aroused great interest. Interest grew when the story
was posted on Hetq.am, and more detail was provided. An interesting
discussion started on the site. Our compatriots from the Diaspora tried
to find out if it is possible to run a legal business in Karabakh and
Armenia, how corrupt the governments of Armenia and Karabakh are, if a
Diasporan has the right to run a business in Karabakh or only charity.

Our readers asked to publish the continuation of Armen’s story. We
met Armen a few days ago and this is what he told us.

First of all, he wrote a letter to the president and described his
problem.

Afterwards an official of the town hall of Shushi called in on him
and said the Supervision Service of the government is going to deal
with his problem.

Armen sent a copy of the letter to the prime minister. Soon he was
invited to meet with the head of the Supervision Service Carlen
Petrosyan. On the next day Carlen Petrosyan was replaced by Hovik
Jivanyan. Last week Hovik Jivanyan invited Armen to have a talk.

Armen says Hovik Jivanyan promised to help Armen get back the 8.5
thousand dollars he had paid for the building from which he had
been evicted.

"When I asked what would happen with the apartment, he said the
apartment is not yours," Armen says.

As to the building for the re-registration of which Armen was
told to disclaim his property and then to write an application for
re-registration but only the first application was met, Hovik Jivanyan
said "let it be a lesson for you". Armen says recently he has often
heard people say that "French ideas do not work here".

"Everyone understands that I was treated wrongly but they cannot do
anything about it," Armen says.

Hovik Jivanyan told Armen "good news". It turned out that Armen
owes 6 million 900 thousand drams to the tax service. Armen has
paid all taxes, and those 7 million drams are fines for mistakes
in accounting. Armen is amazed – the businessman suffers from the
mistakes of the accountant, and the size of fines in Karabakh is
greater than the taxes.

"Now I have two buildings which I let. And since I cannot afford to
pay the fines, they will probably confiscate the buildings. I am going
to request the town hall of Shushi to return my building," Armen says.

Two more interesting circumstances.

The Aravot Daily published Armen’s story from Hetq.am. Afterwards,
the French embassy to Armenia posted information that the French
citizen is prevented from running a business in Armenia.

Secondly, the administration of Shushi telephoned us and promised to
release information about Armen’s defaults and even fraud. We promised
to publish the information.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress