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A French-Armenian Entrepreneur Petitions the President for Help
Nayira Hayrumyan January 07, 2008
Dear Mr. President,
“I came to Karabakh from France with the best of intentions and to pursue a number of patriotic objectives.
I was deeply convinced that by relocating to Karabakh, in the historical-cultural capital of Shushi, my work to assist Karabakh would see increased results and that I would serve as an example to other Armenian young people that it is possible to come and live here and that so much more can be achieved by working here on the ground than by working from the Diaspora. I was truly dedicated when I arrived, but today I really don’t comprehend what is happening to me.”
This is how the letter of Oliver Rakedjian, a French-Armenian, addressed to Bako Sahakyan, the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, begins. (In Shushi, Oliver goes by the name of Armen).
It was in 2004 that Armen moved to Shushi from Paris. He relocated with a number of plans in mind - to establish businesses, to provide jobs for the people and to develop Shushi’s tourism and service sectors. Naturally, he expected to make a profit from these endeavors as well.
With the permission of Shushi’s administrative board and the Mayor’s Office he purchased three pieces of property and opened a computer services center, a real estate agency and a souvenir shop.
After some time had passed the provocations began and he gradually found himself being squeezed against the wall. They began to illegally take back all of his properties. At first he tried to cut a deal with certain ‘influential’ people but realized that this route was a dead-end as he didn’t possess the means to pay the expected bribes. Soon after he took the matter to the courts.
In his letter to President Sahakyan Armen writes, “Sadly, the experiences of the past year have convinced me that even the highest officials of the land remain indifferent to my two issues and that they seek to extricate themselves through a process of deception. I have shown a great deal of patience in the matter and have done all I can to reach a settlement, but just the opposite has happened. I now longer hold out any type of hope, I am a broken man. I ask that you assist in finding g a solution to these issues, issues that no one else has been able to solve or been willing to. I really don’t know what else to do.”
“After investing $50,000 in Shushi I’m still $15,000 in debt to my friends back in France, Armen states. It’s been a year now that I’ve been entangled in this mess. Tourists have visited Karabakh as a result of my encouragement and I have assisted journalists. In order to develop the tourist sector here I have recently published a book about Karabakh in French. It’s now being translated in English as well. All I want to do is work for the good of Karabakh but there are so many obstacles placed in the way that I can no longer continue. A month ago I was forced to shut done all my operations here.”
To date no one from the President’s office has replied to Armen’s letter. According to our sources however the head of the government has directed all appropriate state departments to clarify the circumstances surrounding the matter. They are still looking.
Armen says that in this country the powerful aren’t subject to the rule of law. The powerful however, as self-styled representatives of the law, demand that others subject themselves to their rule.
In his letter Armen writes that, “I slowly learned that without paying bribes and high salaries it would be impossible to achieve my aims solely working within the confines of the law. I have been subjected both to the rule of law, in the guise of an inane and non-functioning system, and to the absence of any law, according to how my presence might be best exploited. In the end, the inevitable happened. My company went bankrupt.
On April 6, 2005 Armen purchased a piece of property measuring 121 square meters located on the first floor of P. Proshyan Street #1 in Shushi for the sum $12,000 from the ‘Antaram’ cooperative. He has paid out $8,500. To date he still hasn’t been able to have his property rights duly registered at the Shushi kadastr(property registrar) since the wrong contract was signed at the notary’s office. On December 18, 2007 the court declared the sale agreement to be invalid and that the property in question remain under the ownership of the seller. The court said nothing about returning any money to Armen. After reviewing the matter, the Supreme Court did find that the decision of the Court of First Instance was groundless and illegal. It was revealed during the court proceedings that the notary had lied and had allowed errors to be made; that the seller sought advantage through the use of bribes and that indeed the property in question was sold to Armen for the sum in question. The judge found that the law had been violated but handed down no decision as to punishment or monetary compensation. Armen declares, “I bought the building. It’s mine and I won’t give it up.”
In 2004 the “Shushi Group” Ltd was registered. Armen recounts, “At the time my Armenian wasn’t that great and I wasn’t too familiar with the way companies worked. For this reason I put all my trust into my accountant Gohar Mamoulyan and the staff at the Tax Administration. My only wish was to properly report all my operations, to see that all appropriate taxes due should be paid and not avoided and that nothing be hidden in the figures given to the tax authorities. By June 2006 my company declared bankruptcy. To date I haven’t been able to officially dissolve the company.” He underlines the fact that no one has been held accountable for what has transpired.
In 2005, under the name of the “Shushi Group” he obtained a piece of property located at Azryan Street # 6A in Shushi and signed a 99 year rental lease with the Mayor’s Office.
Armen recounts that, “Mayor Felix Hakobyan of Shushi says to me that I have to write two applications to get reregistered. The first must state that the “Shushi Group” rejects the contract and the second, signed by me, to reregister. The next day I’m called to his office where he says that the first application has been accepted but he returns the second one to me. What it boils down to is that based on a “narrow application” of the law the Mayor’s Office has reclaimed the property based on my application. I appealed to Vardan Gabrielyan, the Regional Head of Shushi who sent me back to the Mayor’s Office. After all this run-around, and after finding out that the Mayor of Shushi is the husband of the city’s notary, how much longer must I wait for the Mayor to properly reregister my property? I kept a copy of the 99 year lease and started repair work on the building. I will not give it back. To tell you the truth, I don’t know who to turn to next.”
They also hit the company to be dissolved with tax penalties and uncovered what supposedly amount to some 4 million Drams in violations. Armen angrily recounts that, “They knew I didn’t have the means to pay so they probably decided to also snatch the last two remaining properties I owned in Shushi located on the first floor of Ghazanchetsots Street #72. The kadastr appraised these properties to be worth the same as the amount above. It’s understood that these two properties for which I have the ownership deeds are not subject to being returned even if the law is “narrowly applied.” He also stated that the notary ‘mistakenly’ put down another name when drawing up the ownership deed for the apartment.
Armen concluded his story to us by saying, “I live in an apartment that I received on October 27, 2004 through the intercession of Ashot Ghulyan (the President of the NKR National Assembly) after receiving one month’s worth of refusals from the Mayor’s Office. The apartment was in ruins when I got it. To date, thanks to the Mayor’s Office of Shushi, I haven’t been able to get the place registered as my private property. I’ve appealed to officials in Shushi, but they don’t know what to do or how to handle the matter since I’m not a locally registered citizen.”
The following is the conclusion of Armen’s letter to NKR President Bako Sahakyan:
I am letting you know that if I do not see real progress in this matter very shortly I will publish this letter together with all corresponding documentation on the internet in Armenian, Russian, English and French. I will also have the letter forwarded to hundreds of media outlets and thousands of individuals in Karabakh, Armenia and throughout the world. It has already been a year since I’ve attempted to obtain a solution to these problems and deceit through the mediation of the highest institutions of the land. All the promises of assistance have, in practice, resulted in exactly the opposite. There is no more time for idle banter and meaningless discussion of the matter - my rights must be reinstituted. I have come to the realization that this is something that can be achieved only through your personal intercession.
Respectfully,
O.M. Rakedjian
City of Shushi
December 25, 2007
Stepanakert
Nayira Hayrumyan January 07, 2008
Dear Mr. President,
“I came to Karabakh from France with the best of intentions and to pursue a number of patriotic objectives.
I was deeply convinced that by relocating to Karabakh, in the historical-cultural capital of Shushi, my work to assist Karabakh would see increased results and that I would serve as an example to other Armenian young people that it is possible to come and live here and that so much more can be achieved by working here on the ground than by working from the Diaspora. I was truly dedicated when I arrived, but today I really don’t comprehend what is happening to me.”
This is how the letter of Oliver Rakedjian, a French-Armenian, addressed to Bako Sahakyan, the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, begins. (In Shushi, Oliver goes by the name of Armen).
It was in 2004 that Armen moved to Shushi from Paris. He relocated with a number of plans in mind - to establish businesses, to provide jobs for the people and to develop Shushi’s tourism and service sectors. Naturally, he expected to make a profit from these endeavors as well.
With the permission of Shushi’s administrative board and the Mayor’s Office he purchased three pieces of property and opened a computer services center, a real estate agency and a souvenir shop.
After some time had passed the provocations began and he gradually found himself being squeezed against the wall. They began to illegally take back all of his properties. At first he tried to cut a deal with certain ‘influential’ people but realized that this route was a dead-end as he didn’t possess the means to pay the expected bribes. Soon after he took the matter to the courts.
In his letter to President Sahakyan Armen writes, “Sadly, the experiences of the past year have convinced me that even the highest officials of the land remain indifferent to my two issues and that they seek to extricate themselves through a process of deception. I have shown a great deal of patience in the matter and have done all I can to reach a settlement, but just the opposite has happened. I now longer hold out any type of hope, I am a broken man. I ask that you assist in finding g a solution to these issues, issues that no one else has been able to solve or been willing to. I really don’t know what else to do.”
“After investing $50,000 in Shushi I’m still $15,000 in debt to my friends back in France, Armen states. It’s been a year now that I’ve been entangled in this mess. Tourists have visited Karabakh as a result of my encouragement and I have assisted journalists. In order to develop the tourist sector here I have recently published a book about Karabakh in French. It’s now being translated in English as well. All I want to do is work for the good of Karabakh but there are so many obstacles placed in the way that I can no longer continue. A month ago I was forced to shut done all my operations here.”
To date no one from the President’s office has replied to Armen’s letter. According to our sources however the head of the government has directed all appropriate state departments to clarify the circumstances surrounding the matter. They are still looking.
Armen says that in this country the powerful aren’t subject to the rule of law. The powerful however, as self-styled representatives of the law, demand that others subject themselves to their rule.
In his letter Armen writes that, “I slowly learned that without paying bribes and high salaries it would be impossible to achieve my aims solely working within the confines of the law. I have been subjected both to the rule of law, in the guise of an inane and non-functioning system, and to the absence of any law, according to how my presence might be best exploited. In the end, the inevitable happened. My company went bankrupt.
On April 6, 2005 Armen purchased a piece of property measuring 121 square meters located on the first floor of P. Proshyan Street #1 in Shushi for the sum $12,000 from the ‘Antaram’ cooperative. He has paid out $8,500. To date he still hasn’t been able to have his property rights duly registered at the Shushi kadastr(property registrar) since the wrong contract was signed at the notary’s office. On December 18, 2007 the court declared the sale agreement to be invalid and that the property in question remain under the ownership of the seller. The court said nothing about returning any money to Armen. After reviewing the matter, the Supreme Court did find that the decision of the Court of First Instance was groundless and illegal. It was revealed during the court proceedings that the notary had lied and had allowed errors to be made; that the seller sought advantage through the use of bribes and that indeed the property in question was sold to Armen for the sum in question. The judge found that the law had been violated but handed down no decision as to punishment or monetary compensation. Armen declares, “I bought the building. It’s mine and I won’t give it up.”
In 2004 the “Shushi Group” Ltd was registered. Armen recounts, “At the time my Armenian wasn’t that great and I wasn’t too familiar with the way companies worked. For this reason I put all my trust into my accountant Gohar Mamoulyan and the staff at the Tax Administration. My only wish was to properly report all my operations, to see that all appropriate taxes due should be paid and not avoided and that nothing be hidden in the figures given to the tax authorities. By June 2006 my company declared bankruptcy. To date I haven’t been able to officially dissolve the company.” He underlines the fact that no one has been held accountable for what has transpired.
In 2005, under the name of the “Shushi Group” he obtained a piece of property located at Azryan Street # 6A in Shushi and signed a 99 year rental lease with the Mayor’s Office.
Armen recounts that, “Mayor Felix Hakobyan of Shushi says to me that I have to write two applications to get reregistered. The first must state that the “Shushi Group” rejects the contract and the second, signed by me, to reregister. The next day I’m called to his office where he says that the first application has been accepted but he returns the second one to me. What it boils down to is that based on a “narrow application” of the law the Mayor’s Office has reclaimed the property based on my application. I appealed to Vardan Gabrielyan, the Regional Head of Shushi who sent me back to the Mayor’s Office. After all this run-around, and after finding out that the Mayor of Shushi is the husband of the city’s notary, how much longer must I wait for the Mayor to properly reregister my property? I kept a copy of the 99 year lease and started repair work on the building. I will not give it back. To tell you the truth, I don’t know who to turn to next.”
They also hit the company to be dissolved with tax penalties and uncovered what supposedly amount to some 4 million Drams in violations. Armen angrily recounts that, “They knew I didn’t have the means to pay so they probably decided to also snatch the last two remaining properties I owned in Shushi located on the first floor of Ghazanchetsots Street #72. The kadastr appraised these properties to be worth the same as the amount above. It’s understood that these two properties for which I have the ownership deeds are not subject to being returned even if the law is “narrowly applied.” He also stated that the notary ‘mistakenly’ put down another name when drawing up the ownership deed for the apartment.
Armen concluded his story to us by saying, “I live in an apartment that I received on October 27, 2004 through the intercession of Ashot Ghulyan (the President of the NKR National Assembly) after receiving one month’s worth of refusals from the Mayor’s Office. The apartment was in ruins when I got it. To date, thanks to the Mayor’s Office of Shushi, I haven’t been able to get the place registered as my private property. I’ve appealed to officials in Shushi, but they don’t know what to do or how to handle the matter since I’m not a locally registered citizen.”
The following is the conclusion of Armen’s letter to NKR President Bako Sahakyan:
I am letting you know that if I do not see real progress in this matter very shortly I will publish this letter together with all corresponding documentation on the internet in Armenian, Russian, English and French. I will also have the letter forwarded to hundreds of media outlets and thousands of individuals in Karabakh, Armenia and throughout the world. It has already been a year since I’ve attempted to obtain a solution to these problems and deceit through the mediation of the highest institutions of the land. All the promises of assistance have, in practice, resulted in exactly the opposite. There is no more time for idle banter and meaningless discussion of the matter - my rights must be reinstituted. I have come to the realization that this is something that can be achieved only through your personal intercession.
Respectfully,
O.M. Rakedjian
City of Shushi
December 25, 2007
Stepanakert
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