SUKIASYAN DECLARES THAT THEIR ASSETS ARE ROBBED

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[07:19 pm] 06 November, 2008

"The father, who is unable to defend his son’s innocence through the
state and the son is unable to defend his father’s honor are forced
to find other means," this was a reference from the letter of Albert
Sukiasyan, 71, who is the father of NA Deputy Khachatur Sukiasyan. The
latter sent an open letter to the Armenian authorities, the presses,
accredited embassies in Armenia and international organizations.

We present the letter in its entirety.

OPEN LETTER I am 71 years old. I have gone through many troubles
throughout my life, but I have raised my children to work and do good
deeds. They have always succeeded through diligence, consolidation
and fraternity. That is the foundation for the successes in our family
as a result of which we have created strong businesses and thousands
of jobs.

My elder son Khachatur Sukiasyan has been an NA Deputy for three
conventions and had enough courage to be present during the reception
of First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan on September 21,
2007 and declared that he was going to support Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
nomination in the presidential elections. That was when the authorities
began a violent, illegal and shameful campaign against our family,
friends and organizations that cooperate with us.

I will bring up a couple of examples. In late 2007 taxation service
officials invaded the Pizza di Roma restaurants, threatened them,
arrested them and sent the head of the company to jail. Then, they also
imprisoned the two woman workers of Pizza di Roma to jail; the women
had already spent two years in the cell (one of them is a widow and
has two minors). Don’t be surprised, but according to the estimations
of the taxation service, "Pizza di Roma" has made 11,000% profit a
year and having that amount of profits in the history of economy,
has not transferred the corresponding taxes to the state budget.

The next target was the "Bjni" mineral water factory. The taxation
officials were not able to find anything illegal there and were
forced to discover "misuse" of natural resources. According to the
"genius" reasoning of taxing officials, the company had installed the
water meter in the "wrong" place and had caused severe damage to the
state budget. I must clarify that the water meter of the factory had
been installed in 2005 by the Ministry of Environmental Protection,
after which the ministry had checked-up on the meter and had found
no violations. Generally, the meter has nothing to do with the
"Bjni" factory. The meter and the passage for the meter belong to
the ministry. The taxation service had not registered any violation
either during the 2006 check-up, but in January 2008, the officials
came to another conclusion. According to the officials, "Bjni" must
pay for the mineral water that is no longer of use. But the reality
is that according to the contract, "Bjni" had to secure the constant
flow of mineral water and pay only for the mineral water that it had
received from the ore through the tube. But they demanded that "Bjni"
pay for the mineral water that was not used as well. After trials and
tribulations (and we all know how "independent" the judicial system
of Armenia is), it was decided that "Bjni" would pay 4 billion drams
(more than 13 million dollars). At the moment, the company has stopped
production and 480 workers have been left unemployed.

Next up was the "Pares Armenia" company, which imports the products
of "Phillip Morris" to Armenia. The customs service made an absurd
decision to set bans on the import of large amounts of products. "Pares
Armenia" was forced to appeal to the court. The case was postponed
for months in the Administrative Court and the people close to the
authorities (including RA President Serzh Sarkisyan’s son-in-law)
started talks with "Phillip Morris" with the proposal to change the
partner in Armenia. Thus, they are trying to take away the business
by using all kinds of methods and opportunities.

The customs service refused to accept the accounts given by "Adidas"
to the "Sport Time" company as a basis and added 40% tax on the
customs price for the company’s products, when the addition was the
maximum of 1% before September 21, 2007. So, this is an attempt to move
"Sport Time" out of the market just because it belongs to our family.

The taxation service fined 300 million drams against the
"Econominkasatsia" company and brought up a case against the head of
the company, when the RA Central Bank had given official clarifications
on the issue to the benefit of the company. In addition, the taxation
service had not presented any demands during the past years.

I won’t bring up any other examples. I will only state that all
the check-ups, arrests, stop in production and the files for taxing
reaching up to tens of millions of dollars started after September
21, 2007.

As a citizen, I understand all those people, who supported Serzh
Sarkisyan in the elections. It is the choice and right of any
person. But if so, what has my son Khachatur done? Is it because he
stood next to his elder friend? That was my son’s political right,
which Serzh Sarkisyan and any member of his political team must
respect.

Today, our country is littered with murders and other crimes. That
goes to show that there is injustice and people are trying to solve
issues their own way.

I find it hard to blame those people. The father, who is unable to
defend his son’s innocence through the state and the son is unable
to defend his father’s honor are forced to find other means.

There is only one thing that consoles me-the attitude of the
society. Hundreds and thousands of people are trying to help us with
their words and actions and are not leaving us behind. For example,
the more they try to crush "Bjni", the more people buy the products.

I know very well that some authority figures have the goal of
redistributing and stealing all that we have worked for. They are doing
this every day against a family, which has a big reputation in the
country, as well as abroad and which is a very big taxpayer. If they
are doing this to us, what can the hundreds of other entrepreneurs
do? Imagine how many people lost hope in the state and try to solve
their issues through illegal means.

It is necessary to have political will to put an end to all this.

I call on you to persuade the current administration to think not only
about their personal interests today; otherwise, the hatred will get
deeper and you can’t rule a country with hatred.