FOREIGN PARTNERS RESPOND TO CRACKDOWN ON BJNI

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[08:05 pm] 03 November, 2008

Foreign partners of SIL Concern have responded to the latest scandal
over the Sukiasian-owned businesses, in particular the crackdown on
Bjni Company.

"I cannot believe that the authorities deny any political motives
behind the crackdown on this successful company of mineral waters. The
loss of this national brand will directly inflict great losses on
Armenia’s shaky economy. Imagine the French government closes Evian
or Perrier or the U.S. government closes Coca Cola or Pepsi," says
President of Harwal Group Harut Ohanessian.

"Reasonable people will condemn the regime’s steps which obviously
intend to dissolve the successful business of their political
opponents to deprive them of their property. Unfortunately, this
valuable national resource is destroyed for political reasons, he says.

Remind that the SIL Concern issued a statement according to which
an Armenian business group owned by a fugitive opposition-linked
businessman Khacahtur Sukiasyan claimed to be heading for financial
ruin because of what it described as a "political vendetta" waged
by the government. The SIL Concern group, which comprises a major
commercial bank and a dozen other companies (Bjni, Pares Armenia,
Pizza de Roma, Sports Time, Yerevan’s Mill and Nor Shin), fell foul
of the authorities after its main owner, parliament deputy Khachatur
Sukiasian, publicly welcomed former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
September 2007 return to active politics. The companies have sustained
great losses.

Another Sukiasian-owned company, the exclusive distributor of Phillip
Morris cigarettes in Armenia, went out of business earlier this year,
saying that customs officials are refusing to process its imports on
government orders. According to SIL, Phillip Morris now sells its
cigarettes in the Armenian market through another firm allegedly
controlled by President Serzh Sarkisian’s influential son-in-law.

Three of those companies were inspected by tax authorities and charged
with evading millions of dollars in taxes late last year. Two of
them, a pizza restaurant chain and a printing house, saw their chief
executives arrested on corresponding charges. In a written statement,
SIL accused the authorities of seeking to "destroy" the companies
owned by Sukiasian and his extended family. "With this approach, the
current authorities have proved one thing: that those entrepreneurs
who will dare not to follow their rules of the game will be strictly
and arbitrarily punished," the statement said.