Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

FROM THE MARGINS
A defenseless fish fueled my Cuban dream
BY PATRICK AZADIAN
(Published: October 8, 2005, Glendale News-Press)

A few Saturdays ago I ended up starting out the day later than usual.
It was already mid-afternoon when I realized I was hungry. I had a
tri-faceted dilemma: eat out, go over to mom’s, or do my usual
single-guy-who-can’t cook routine. The latter involved a can of tuna
originating from the Persian Gulf.

The steel-packed tuna is not only exceptionally tasty, but it also
awakens some secondhand nostalgia in me. The fish is from a region
where my dad was born.

But, despite its great taste and our common roots, on that particular
Saturday my thoughts wandered off to all the possible environmental
trauma the tuna may have faced before finding its way into the can.

No one knows when my dad’s compatriot was canned. The region is rich
in oil, and every time I look down on an opened can, I wonder how much
of the petro-hazards are intertwined with my tuna. I don’t know of any
Middle Eastern environmentalists, so I can assume the tuna is
defenseless against all the pollution dumped into the Gulf.

In addition, the region has been in a constant state of war in the
last few decades. First, it was a certain Saddam Hussein, who decided
to inflict a seemingly meaningless war on his eastern neighbors, taking
advantage of Iran’s unofficial status as the region’s outlaw. While the
world stood silent with a wicked smile, he brought death and
destruction to the innocent civilians of the region. In the process, he
successfully tested all his latest war toys and chemical ammunition. I
wondered if my tuna had consumed any of the hazardous elements or the
bomb residues during this war.

Once the Iraqi leader was armed to his teeth, and his army was battle
tested against Persian teenagers, he shifted his attention to invading
his Arab brethren in Kuwait. We all know the outcome of that
over-ambitious offensive. The dramatic images of the burning oil fields
in the aftermath of the occupation were fresh in my mind. The burned
deposits in the air must have gone somewhere; I wouldn’t be surprised
if some found their way into my beloved tuna.

The recent military conflict in the region must also be leaving its
unique scars on the Gulf environment. Combine that with the presence of
an Iranian nuclear power plant stationed at the southern port city of
Bushehr, and it is not hard to see why I opted out of the tuna and
headed down to one of my favorite food establishments on Brand
Boulevard.

Porto’s Bakery satisfies all five of my requirements for patronizing
an establishment. It’s family owned, it’s local, the food tastes great
and, as far as I know, it’s free of war chemicals and radiation.
Moreover, the place has a certain ambience. When I speak of ambience, I
am not referring to a Moroccan-style lounge with a mélange of
Arab-Berber-Ottoman music and floor seating suited for consuming
koos-koos. The ambience at this Cuban-American establishment is subdued
and subtle.

The sounds of salsa play in the background, yet they are not
overwhelming. There seems to be a hidden message. “This is an authentic
Cuban Bakery. But we don’t need to shove it in your face with loud
sounds, overwhelming decorations or colorful posters. Our food speaks
for itself.”

So what does an Armenian-American order at a Cuban-American café? A
feta sandwich and a green salad. I grabbed my “#22” before making my
way to a table. Waiting anxiously for my food, I wondered if this was a
piece of Havana without all the self-imposed economic and ideological
limitations.

I decided to soak up as much “Cuban-ness” as possible.

A trio of older men was sitting all the way across the café. They
were
engaged in an animated conversation. The leader of the group was
sitting in the middle. His white linen suit, pink shirt and white tie
combined perfectly to give the table a tropical feel.

I was curious. Was the man in the middle reminiscing about the old
days in Havana? Was the old man still homesick? Or was he recalling his
memories of the cigar factory he began work in as a teenager before
working his way up to become a “lector” (a “reader” of literature often
employed at a cigar factory to entertain the cigar rollers)?

At some point, my food had arrived and I had consumed it without
knowing. It was time to leave the “island.”

I picked up my tray and walked toward the trash can near the trio. I
heard a familiar tongue:” As suryatseeneuh beedee chi dzuken Lipananuh
hankeest mnah.” My dream had been shattered; the “islanders” turned out
to be fake. They were Lebanese-Armenian and their deduction was gloomy:
“These Syrians are never going to let Lebanon live in peace.”

I snapped out of “mi sueño cubano” (“my Cuban dream”). I was in
America. The unleashed spirit of entrepreneurship and the co-existence
of the peoples from all over the world was all the proof I needed.

* PATRICK AZADIAN works and lives in Glendale. He may be reached at
padaniaearthlink.net.

ARMINFO News Agency
October 7, 2005

RUSSIAN MILITARY UNITS IN ARMENIA DO NOT CONCERN KARABAKH CONFLICT:
ARMENIAN DM

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 7. ARMINFO. The presence of the Russian military
units in Armenia does not concern the Karabakh conflict and the
relations with Azerbaijan, Armenia’s Defence Minister Serzh Sargssyan
stated journalists, Friday.

In his words, the Russian units are being located in Armenia at the
request and offer of the Armenian authorities. “Russian units are the
component of our security and their presence has been condintioned by
Armenia’s relations with countries out of the CIS, especially with
Turkey that is tuned with ill-will towards Armenia. Russian units are
in Armenia from our interests and we are to decide how long they will
be in the country”, Sargssyan stressed.

Spiked, UK
Oct 7 2005

Turkish discontent
The EU debate is both anti-Turkish and anti-European.

by Bruno Waterfield

In today’s European Union (EU) the question of what it is to be a
European cannot be taken for granted. One fault line is the question
of Turkey’s EU membership. Large majorities of Europeans are opposed:
over 80 per cent in Austria, over 70 per cent in France and at least
55 per cent in Germany. Are these Europeans simply racists or
Christian bigots? Or is this discontent a skirmish in a culture war
over what makes, and who defines, a European?

Proponents of Turkish membership argue that the EU is not strictly
defined by borders or geography. Instead of shared territory, claims
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, the question is one of shared
values. ‘I am often asked where Europe’s ultimate borders lie. My
answer is that the map of Europe is defined in the min’, he said
early this year. ‘Geography sets the frame, but fundamentally it is
values that make the borders of Europe. Enlargement is a matter of
extending the zone of European values.’ But what values, and who
defines and enforces them?

Turkey isn’t joining a freewheeling, Enlightenment project of
progressives. By signing-up, Turkey is committing to an ongoing
intensive, intrusive reform process. The nameless EU officials
overseeing the ‘chapters’, the bureaucratic targets that Turkey must
make the grade on to join, will recentre the country’s political life
around the rules-based system that is the embodiment of Rehn’s
‘values’. Turkey – like the countries that went before it – will be
required to embrace sweeping reform, change that will not come from
below but from above, imposed by administrators.

This is bureaucratic decision-making by committees of EU and national
officials: governance without government, perpetual administration
and political process without any of the interruptions of democratic
accountability. Sadly, joining the EU’s bureaucratic network is as
appealing to Turkey’s elite as it is to the rest of Europe’s
political classes. Turkey’s rulers have long run scared of argument
and change driven by the majority of Turks. The criminal offence of
‘openly denigrating the Turkish identity’ is an indication of a
ruling class as frail in its self-belief as the EU elites who today
outlaw free speech for Muslim clerics.

What will change with Turkey’s EU membership will be the
administrative mechanisms. As Europeans know too well, the EU’s
tick-box world of human rights rules is no guarantor of freedom.
Becoming ‘European’ for Turkey will mean embracing a EU world where
everything is tolerated – except intolerance. Turkey will lose the
old authoritarian taboos, such as prohibition on discussion of the
role of the military or the Armenian genocide – but these will be
replaced by the new taboos of modern Western society.

A burgeoning bureaucracy of unelected administrators and officials
will step into the military’s shoes. Turks will soon be able to talk
about the Armenian genocide – no more prosecutions for famous writers
like Orthan Pamuk. In fact, recognition of the historical event is
set to be a compulsory requirement for Turkey’s EU membership, and EU
hate crime laws can no doubt be cited to ensure compliance. Europe’s
culture wars will spill over into Turkey, as Turks are asked to
abandon the past and embrace EU codes of conduct.

Decades ago, NATO members in Europe overlooked Turkey’s military
dictatorships and human rights abuses with the aim of cementing a
Cold War alliance against the Soviet Union. Today, all EU member
governments – even Austria – see Turkey as a bridge between East and
West. And in these post-11 September, 11 March or 7 July days, Turkey
is regarded as a crucial bulwark against terrorism. Cultural
difference and the prospect of a ‘clash of civilisations’ is regarded
as a clear and present danger.

‘Turkey can be a bridge between Europe and the Islamic world. The
world of the twenty-first century is not doomed to a clash of
civilisations, but can be built on dialogue, cooperation and
integration’, Rehn wrote in December 2004. The premise of this view
is that Turkey must join or there will be more terrorism. This scare
story is typically EU in terms of seeking to mobilise irrational
fear. The entirely negative content of such arguments is both
anti-European and anti-Turkish, in the sense of appealing to backward
prejudices rather than a common humanity. This argument can only fuel
mistrust between Europeans and Turks, who are stripped of a proud
secular history to become Muslims.

During grumpy debates last week, European Parliament Socialist leader
Martin Schulz attacked Hans-Gert Poettering after the Christian
Democrat criticised EU ‘double standards’ that ruled Turkey in but
ruled out (at that time) Croatia. ‘Everyone shut their eyes on the
human rights issue in Turkey while Croatia was to be refused the
start of negotiations because a single general – one who was plainly
not even in Croatia – had not yet been delivered up to the Hague war
crimes tribunal’, he said. Schulz retorted that: ‘You don’t want to
have Turkey because it is Islamic and far away. Croatia is closer and
is Catholic. That is the truth of your message. Let us not beat about
the bush. We must apply the same standards to all countries.’

Many Europeans are turned off by EU elites setting down new rules
of life and politics

Schulz may well have a point here about Poettering. But religious
bigotry does not explain why such huge majorities, in France for
example, are against Turkey’s EU entry. In fact, a Marshall Fund
opinion survey last month showed that 59 per cent of Europeans do not
think Turkey’s ‘Muslim’ status is a reason against EU membership. The
religion issue, upholding a Christian Europe in opposition to the
Islamic East, in the style of the 1683 Siege of Vienna, is irrelevant
to most Europeans. Most Europeans are secular and turned off from the
Catholic Church or organised Christianity. In fact, it is the EU
elites who bring up religion as an argument, to avoid a ‘clash of
civilisations’, and to tutor Europeans (as well as Turks) in the joys
of ‘inter-cultural dialogue’.

By 2008, Turkey will be moiled in membership negotiations and the EU
will be entering a ‘European year of intercultural dialogue’. The
premise of the therapeutic theme is the inability of Europeans, and
Turks, to deal with the modern world. Launching the event this week,
EU culture commissioner Jan Figel explained that Europe’s citizens
were just not up to it. ‘Over the past few years, Europe has seen
major changes resulting from successive enlargements of the EU,
greater mobility in the single market, and increased travel to and
trade with the rest of the world’, he said. ‘This has resulted in
interaction between Europeans and the different cultures, languages,
ethnic groups and religions on the continent and elsewhere. Dialogue
between cultures would therefore appear to be an essential tool in
forging closer links both between European peoples themselves and
between their respective cultures.’

Commission documents claim the ‘real challenge is to move from a
“multicultural” society to an “inter-cultural” one’. But the message
is clear: the problem is interaction between Europeans. ‘It is
essential to ensure that [the] diversity [of an enlarged EU] becomes
a source of richness rather than a source of confrontation… the
peoples of the EU are increasingly made up of a mosaic of cultures,
languages, traditions, origins and religions. The social fabric of
the EU is threatened by rampant racism and xenophobia…. One is afraid
of what one does not know. In this context, it is essential to
promote dialogue between religious and ethnic communities’, states a
Brussels work document.

For Europe’s elites and bureaucrats, those who are opposed to Turkish
entry are mired in backward-looking national or religious communities
that must be ditched in today’s globalised world. Turks and Europeans
who exhibit reservations about the EU will be enlisted in the
‘intercultural’ game. ‘We should get to know Turkey better and Turkey
should… get to know European values better. The commission is
preparing proposals on how we can promote the dialogue, bringing
people together from EU member states and Turkey’, Rehn said
recently. This shows the isolated bureaucratic process that estranges
EU elites from Europeans.

Opposition to Turkish EU membership in Austria, France, Germany and
elsewhere is far wider than isolated groups of racists or chauvinist
rumps. Many Europeans are turned off by EU elites setting down new
rules of life and politics.

EU ideologues Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens are sniffy about what
they see as ‘an emotional return to the apparent safe haven of the
nation’. In the new world of globalisation, they argue, nations are
enhanced by international networks. ‘Let us start to think of the EU
not as an ‘unfinished nation’ or an ‘incomplete federal state’, but
instead as a new type of cosmopolitan project’, they wrote in the UK
Guardian on 4 October. But the ‘cosmopolitanism’ of Beck or Giddens,
or the EU elite, is empty. Cosmopolitanism cannot be built on nothing
more than isolated bureaucratic castes. Elites that themselves share
little more than their contempt for Europeans.

The idea of ‘intercultural dialogue’, which fears the interaction of
Europeans new and old, shows up elites’ pseudo-cosmopolitanism. All
the EU elites actually share are the prejudiced assumptions of a
minority pitted against the majority – and only those who sign up to
this debased worldview may join the club. The real dynamic behind the
row over EU membership is nothing to with Turkey or Europe as such,
but is the issue of how European identities should be ordered.
Europeans should oppose all attempts to bureaucratically impose the
dead ‘cosmopolitanism’ of the EU elites.

Bruno Waterfield is editor of the Brussels-based website Eupolitix
and Parliament magazine.

NAASR PRESENTS TALK ABOUT ARMENIAN PHOTO COLLECTION

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Oct 6 2005

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research will present
“Armenian Photographs in the Getty Museum Collection,” an illustrated
lecture by Van Aroian, on Thursday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. at the NAASR
Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont.

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles houses the Getty Research Library,
which contains a collection of Ottoman photographs. This collection
is an invaluable resource for Ottoman scholars, ethnographers,
historians of Ottoman photography, and students of Armenian Ottoman
life. Furthermore, this collection provides a valuable resource for
an investigator interested in developing the significant contribution
of Armenian photographers to the early development of photography
throughout the Ottoman Empire.

The program will provide a visual presentation and sampling of the
Ottoman photo collection at the Getty Research Institute, with a focus
on its Armenian flavor and contributions. These photos will provide
us the opportunity to walk down memory lane and share together some
social and historic commentary.

Van Aroian spent some six weeks in 1999-2001 looking through the
Getty’s Ottoman photograph collection. He earned a bachelor’s degree
at Boston University and a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies
at Harvard University. He was a fellow in Urban Geography at Clark
University and an Urban Planner and Deputy Director of the Worcester
Redevelopment Authority. He later joined his brother in-law, Kevork,
and wife Mary Balekdjian Aroian in importing and retailing Oriental
carpets.

Admission is free (donations accepted). A reception will follow
the program. For more information call 617-489-1610, or e-mail
[email protected].

HUMAN RIGHTS AND ETHICS

A1+
| 19:35:11 | 05-10-2005 | Official |

Today the RA Ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan met the UNESCO Moscow office
Human Rights and Social Affairs coordinator Sergey Smirnov.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss the possibilities of cooperation
of the organization and the National Institution of human rights.

The Ombudsman’s institution has applied to UNESCO to organize
a regional conference in Yerevan in 2006 titled “Integration of
approaches of human rights and ethics in political and educational
systems” expecting the organization’s support.

By the way, on October 7 the joint session of the UNESCO Moscow office
and CIS member-countries Ethics Committees will take place under the
support of the RA Ombudsman.

FRENCH INSURANCE CO. AGREES TO PAY $17 MILLION TO GENOCIDE HEIRS
By Harut Sassounian; Publisher, The California Courier

AZG Armenian Daily #179
06/10/2005

Armenian Genocide

The French Insurance Company Axa agreed to pay $17 million to
descendants of life insurance policyholders who perished during the
Armenian Genocide.

This announcement was made by Mark Geragos, a prominent Los Angeles
attorney, during the Oct. 2 banquet of the USC Institute of Armenian
Studies honoring Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian.

Geragos, along with attorneys Vartkes Yeghiayan and Brian Kabateck,
had filed a class action lawsuit in a California federal court against
Axa for failing to pay death benefits for the insurance policies
purchased by Armenians in Turkey prior to the Armenian Genocide. Judge
Tevrizian mediated the $17 million settlement which will be disbursed
as follows: Up to $11 million for the heirs of close to 11,000 life
insurance policyholders; $3 million for various Armenian charities;
and $3 million for attorneys’ fees.

A French-Armenian charitable group will process and pay the claims. Any
funds leftover after all claimants are paid would be turned over to
the French-Armenian charity.

The Axa settlement follows a similar agreement with New York Life
Insurance Company in early 2004. New York Life agreed to pay $20
million which was to be disbursed as follows: Up to $11 million for the
heirs of 2,400 life insurance policyholders who perished during the
Armenian Genocide; $3 million for nine Armenian-American charitable
and religious organizations; $2 million for administrative expenses;
and $4 million for attorney’s fees.

In a lengthy interview with the French Armenian magazine, Nouvelles
d’Armenie (September 2005 issue), Yeghiayan provided several intriguing
details regarding the activities and irresponsible conduct of L’Union
insurance company which was purchased by Axa in 1996.

L’Union started selling insurance policies in the Ottoman Empire
in the 1870 ‘s and continued to do so until 1931. Simon Kayserlyan
was the Director of the 51 offices of the firm in Turkey. According
to a letter sent by L’Union to the French Foreign Ministry in 1922,
the company had sold 10,899 life insurance policies by the time of
the Armenian Genocide.

In that 1922 letter, L’Union disclosed that it risked losing 42 million
French Francs or $8 million as a result of the deaths of its Armenian
policyholders. The letter also said that not meeting its obligations
to the perished Armenians would tarnish the company’s reputation
and prestige.

While New York Life made some attempts in the aftermath of the Genocide
to locate and pay those entitled to receive death benefits, L’Union
categorically refused to make any payments. In the early 1920’s when
French-Armenian refugee centers in Paris wrote to L’Union asking
to see the list of Armenian policyholders, the company reportedly
refused, saying that such private information could not be divulged
to outside parties.

In 1928, the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of
Nations asked several insurance companies to disclose the list of
their Armenian clients, explaining that the heirs of some insurance
policyholders were children living in extremely destitute conditions
in refugee camps and that funds from the insurance benefits would
considerably ameliorate their situation. L ‘Union reportedly responded
by saying that it could not comply with the request, as it was unable
to tell which of its clients were Armenians.

Furthermore, the company made impossible demands from the families
of perished individuals in order to avoid paying them. For example,
in a June 18, 1925 letter, L’Union told an Armenian claimant
to provide a death certificate and a notarized document from the
Turkish Consulate in Athens proving his relationship to the deceased
policyholder. Whereas New York Life accepted the documents provided
by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, L’ Union refused to accept
such documents, demanding that the survivors of the Genocide return to
Turkey to obtain the necessary certificates from Turkish courts. As
a result, not a single Armenian policyholder got a penny from this
company. After 1945, the company came up with a new argument for
refusing all requests for payment. It said that due to the 30-year
statute of limitations, it was no longer obligated to make any payments
for policies written prior to 1915.

The Axa settlement has a significant advantage over the one with New
York Life. Thanks to the efforts of the three Armenian attorneys,
Judge Tevrizian and Axa executives, there is a clear reference to
the Armenian Genocide in the text of the Axa settlement, whereas in
the New York Life agreement, the Armenian Genocide is merely referred
to as “the tragic events of 1915.”

The October issue of the French magazine, L’Expansion, reported that
the next insurance company to be sued by the Armenian lawyers for
non-payment of Genocide era insurance claims would be the German firm,
Victoria. There is also talk of a lawsuit being filed against the
British insurance company, Gresham, and various German banks that
operated in Turkey and had taken deposits from Armenians in that
country prior to the Genocide.

The next legal step would be to sue the Turkish government for its
illegal confiscation of the personal and real properties of Armenians
in Turkey after the Genocide.

HEAD OF OIC SAYS TURKEY SHOULD NOT BE BLAMED FOR COMPLICATED RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

ARMINFO News Agency
October 5, 2005

STRASBOURG, OCTOBER 4. ARMINFO. “Turkey should not be blamed for
complicated relations with Armenia, but rather should be taken into
consideration Turkey’s friendly relations with its neighbors,”
said the secretary of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference),
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

Mr. Ihsanoglu also noted that the Karabakh conflict will be settled
only when the peoples live in their homeland.

In his turn Terry Davies, the EC Secretary, said that he considers
Turkey a European Country. -A-

AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA SEE EYE-TO-EYE ON CLEARANCE OF MINES
by E. Huseynov

Trend news agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2005

Baku, 4 October: An agreement on the clearance of mines has already
been secured during the talks on the peaceful resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told journalists, Trend news
agency reports.

He said that the clearance of mines is a crucial process and will
be of overriding importance once Armenia pulls out of the occupied
territories. The clearance of mines is one of the topics on which an
agreement was reached during the consultations with Armenia and the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

The next round of the talks may take place in Ljubljana on 3-4
December on the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers’ summit,
Mammadyarov said. “The meeting in Ljubljana is not definite yet, but
I will certainly be there,” the minister said and added that during
the consultations, the discussion will continue within the framework
of the “Prague process”.

Asked about possible work on a draft agreement on the peaceful
resolution of the conflict, Mammadyarov said: “We still have to agree
on conceptual issues. Only after that, can we say whether there will
be a document or not. It is still too early and there is no talk
about any document.”

There has been some progress during the talks, but there is no talk
about an official document, the minister said. “Certainly, something
is taken down and is under discussion. We will summarize our position
and so will Armenia, and the co-chairmen are working to summarize
this. But it is still too early to talk about an official document,”
Mammadyarov said.

100 MILION DRAMS AS A GIFT TO YEREVAN

Panorama News
13:36 03/10/05

The events of the “The Yerevan Day” festival will begin on October 8.

Concerts and fireworks are organized in all communities of the capital.

The same day the exhibition “My Yerevan” will be opened in Yerevan
History Museum. “It is the first time, that Yerevan History Museum
will open its doors in a new building”, said deputy mayor A. Sahakyan .

He also informed, by the Government decision the second Saturday of
October has been announced “The Yerevan Day”,

Opening ceremony of the festival will take place in the Opera
House. The events will over on October 9 and in the evening a Gala
concert will take place in the Republic Square with fireworks at
the end.

For celebration of its birthday party Yerevan is going to receive
11 delegations from IRI, Greece, Odessa, Florence, Yekaterinburg,
Stavropoulos and other countries.

About 80-100 million drams will be spent on celebration events.

SARKISIAN’S BROTHER ADMITS BUSINESS INTERESTS ABROAD
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
Oct 3 2005

The older brother of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian insisted on
Monday that he never considered emigrating or hid from anyone during
his prolonged and mysterious absence from Armenia.

Aleksandr Sarkisian, who owns a lucrative business and holds a seat
in the Armenian parliament, also effectively admitted having moved
a considerable part of his assets overseas.

“I’m not the kind of guy who would flee and leave his family behind,”
he told journalists. “I have no reason to be in hiding. My wife and
two sons have been here all the time.”

Sarkisian has spent most of the past year abroad and has not been
seen in public in Armenia for many months. He is known to have lived
for up to six months in Britain and other parts of Western European
and was reportedly in the United States in the last few months.

Sarkisian’s absence prompted far-reaching speculation in the Armenian
press. Some newspapers have alleged that he left the country for good,
fearing retribution for a 2002 murder in Yerevan of a Russian crime
figure of Armenian descent which was linked with his name.

Sarkisian angrily denied such claims. “There is no guy in Armenian
from whom I would run away. You understand?” he said.

Newspapers critical of Armenia’s leadership a have also claimed that
Sarkisian has spent millions of dollars on buying real estate in
Britain and California. “When the value of real property acquired
by him in Los Angeles surpassed 12 million [dollars] he immediately
attracted the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations,”
one of those papers, “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun,” reported on September
16. “They demanded that Sashik Sarkisian present an income and
property declaration, which the National Assembly deputy did, showing
U.S. law-enforcers a $30 million declaration.”

Sarkisian did not deny the report, saying that his visits abroad
“had to do with both my health and business.” But he did not give
details of his overseas business activities.

“We are considered high-level officials and file financial declarations
every year. I have a firm and engage in business. Fifty percent of
the Multi Lion firm is mine,” Sarkisian said, referring to Armenia’s
leading supplier of liquefied gas to households, cars and buses.

The rest of Multi Lion is owned by Gagik Tsarukian, one of Armenia’s
richest men close to President Robert Kocharian and his powerful
defense minister. It is part of Tsarukian’s Multi Group conglomerate
that comprises over 40 big and medium-sized businesses. Despite being
lucrative, the vast majority of them were not included in the list
of the country’s leading corporate taxpayers released by the Armenian
government earlier this year.