Last year Areg Hayrapetyan, advisor to Armenia's Minister of Culture, was arrested.

Architect Aramayis Grigoryan claims that he was never paid by the ministry for professional services rendered. He started to make noise and the cops arrested Hayrapetyan.

Four years ago, the Ministry of Culture hired Aramayis Grigoryan to carry out renovations and repairs at the Gevorg Marzpetuni fortress and church located in the village of Ourtsadzor in Ararat Marz.

"I received a phone call from Hovhannes Aramyan, Director of H. Aramyan Ltd. 7 million AMD had been allocated for the project but Aramyan told me they could only pay me 3 million. Both of us went to see Karen Danielyan, a technical supervisor over at the Ministry of Culture," Grigoryan recounts.

Grigoryan says that Danielyan handed him 100,000 AMD on the spot to cover current expenses. He also claims that Danielyan promised him a monthly salary of 100,000 as project designer and chief architect.

"I said it would be preferable to sign a work contract to put it all in writing – the duration of the job and my responsibilities. Danielyan responded that there wasn't time and that I should start. The contract would come later," Grigoryan stated.

Grigoryan says that he and Aramyan visited the fortress once or twice and that later on he paid for things out of his own pocket. The architect says that he researched the archives and found that the site lacked any materials on dimensions.

After months of work, the architect handed in his 3 volume draft plan for the project.

"Before that, Aramyan had given me 160,000. But I had returned 100,000 of it because Aramyan claimed that Danielyan had originally paid me the 100,000 out of his own pocket and that he wanted it back. Anyway, we never signed a work contract. In the end, I only wound up getting paid 60,000 for my troubles," says Grigoryan.

It was Areg Hayrapetyan, then serving as an advisor to the minister of culture and head of the Department of Legal Affairs, who reviewed the draft plan for the renovation project.

Grigoryan says that only a few minor alterations were made and that the plan was to be presented to Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan for her final approval.

The architect claims that Aramyan advised him to transfer the draft into a computer graphics program for presentation to the minister.

"I responded that I couldn't do anything of the kind with the 60,000 they had paid me. We shopped around and even Aramyan was convinced that it would at least cost 70,000. He told me that I should pay for the job and that I would get reimbursed later. I refused," Grigoryan recounts.

He says that three months later, in March of 2008, he found out that renovation work on the fortress had already started.

"Naturally, they were using my draft because, like I have said, even archival materials were lacking. No architect could come up with a new draft blueprint in just three months," says Grigoryan.

He continues that he went to see Areg Hayrapetyan, a ministerial advisor, who told him that his original draft wasn't acceptable and that the ministry had hired the services of another.

"Hayrapetyan held up some blueprints but didn't let me examine them up close. All that I saw was the name of the architect – V. Grigoryan.

Aramayis Grigoryan argues that this new blueprint really doesn't exist and that they just affixed a fictitious name to his draft.

The architect, believing that he has been duped, has petitioned the Ministry of Culture, the Chief Prosecutor's Office and the police.

In his appeals, Grigoryan also makes the claim that the 10th century cultural site must also be regarded as an "injured party" since it is being deprived of his personal oversight as architectural planner.

"Even the casual observer can see that renovations have begun without any preliminary excavations. The fortress walls have been partially repaired but the work is defective. There is no symmetry between old and new. Even the fortress towers have been unprofessionally renovated," states Grigoryan.

The architect's protestations have led to a criminal case being filed. The pre-trial investigation is still underway.

"To be honest, I don't even know who has been charged with what. All I can say is that after I started to speak out the police arrested Areg Hayrapetyan," Grigoryan says.

Hayrapetyan was arrested in May, 2010. At the time, the press reported that during a search of Hayrapetyan's house the police found a second passport in his name and blank ministry letterhead signed by the minister.

The National Security Service (NSS) investigated the matter. The NSS has told Hetq that the charges against Hayrapetyan were dropped after he reimbursed the state for damages incurred.

The overall case is still languishing at the Chief Investigation Department of the Armenian Police.

While Aramyan might be in the crosshairs of the investigation, to date no one else has been arrested in this case of "abuse of power by employees of commercial or other organizations."