Today, the sociologist Aharon Adibekyan during a press conference at “Forum” club said that “any respected political figure has an offshore account.” In this regard, “Aravot” inquired from him “are you saying this based on the facts or you suppose.” “Not, when you take the Russian press, you see that there are some serious numbers: there is annually $ 30-60 billion of outflow from this country. It is not only the business class. Avoiding taking a bribe immediately by hand, the bribery is transmitted to an offshore zone, after being used.”,-he said. To our question whether, in other words, it is also acceptable in Armenia, Mr. Arakelyan very honestly answered,- “Yes, in our case, it is very possible. For example, we were doing a transaction, the transfer was supposed to arrive if the taxes were paid, we would not have come out of the situation, we were offered to open an offshore account, to transfer the money over there so that to take the rollback from there, who has brought the project to us, naturally, it was having expectations. It’s a very accepted thing, and the state is not against it, because after all, if an amount enter the country, it creates a job, it is already good. So is the rest of the world.
Only in the U.S. it is quite strict, because the highest penalty is for violations of tax. You may rape and kill; it is a pretty light crime than violation of tax legislation. Others allow because the offshore zone is considered to be a gray zone, there are also white and black zones. The black zone is the worst, money for arms, narco-buisness and trafficking is circulating, the embargo violation money is there, but the offshore at least becomes controllable, and now the whole world wants to completely eliminate the black zone, and the gray zone will remain.” From your statement it turns out that everything is normal, having an offshore account is acceptable, etc., then why do you exclude it concretely with Tigran Sargsyan’s case? To this question of “Aravot” Mr. Adibekyan answered, – “Because there are some questions. If he has open, he was supposed to go there, if he has given a permit or a letter of attorney to someone, it should be registered at a notary…..” “Yes, but two days ago the editor of “Hetq” in an interview with “Civilnet” said that they have evidences that the same Kchoyan was twice in Cyprus”, to our observation Mr. Adibekyan responded,- “Yeah, but that does not mean that Tigran Sargsyan had also gone. Then, there is an Armenian community in Cyprus, an Armenian Seminary, he may have gone there … In short, it is a complicated issue.
I hope that the supervisory agencies: prosecutors, investigative agencies will be involved and tell the truth.” We got the impression from today’s press conference with Aharon Adibekyan that Serge Sargsyan thinks that Tigran Sargsyan at this point is the most acceptable option for the position of the Prime Minister. Whether it is so, in response to “Aravot” the sociologist said,- “As we have debts to international organizations, reaching 5 billion dollars, Tigran Sargsyan is irreplaceable, because he was working with those structures for about fifteen-seventeen years, and as of today he the most accepted and eminent figure in international organizations.” To our question as to don’t you think that this scandal related to offshore will drop his reputation down in the eyes of these organizations, Mr. Adibekyan answered,- “No. Those scandals live, how long, a week or two months and are forgotten.” And then added in
a Nazi spirit,- “Now who remembers Karapetyan? What was the noise when ALM was closed, now who remembers him? The public opinion has a weak memory …”
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Melania BARSEGHYAN
Photo by PanArmenian Photo
