In the summer of 2007 Martuni Cheese Factory, OJSC, and Pavel & Co. Ltd. came to an agreement to built and jointly run a gas station on land owned by the cheese factory. Tatoul Baghdasaryan, head of the cheese factory, managed to get all of the documents required for the construction of the gas station after which he and the representative of Pavel and Co. Ltd. were expected to sign an agreement on building and running the gas station. The director of the cheese factory provided a territory and a station while Pavel and Co. Ltd. was to purchase all of the required equipment.

“After the construction of the gas station we were to run it at 70/30 ratio. 70% of the profits would belong to Pavel and Co. Ltd, while the remaining 30% would be ours. They also used the construction materials and the electrical equipments belonging to the cheese factory for the gas station’s construction. The gas station construction work finished in December, 2007. They run it till now. They keep getting profits by using 0.64 hectares of our company’s territory, but we still haven’t gotten our share of the profits. Vladimir Baghmanyan, head of Pavel and Co. Ltd., refuses to sign any agreement with our company,” Tatoul Baghdasaryan, head of “Martuni Cheese Factory, in an interview with “Hetq” stated that, “Martuni Cheese Factory” OSJC is registered in Martuni (Gegharkunik) Regional Department of RoA State Registry. He said that they have all the documents required for building a reprocessing station on the territory of the cheese factory. According to Haroutunyan, Pavel and Co. took advantage of the fact and misappropriated the reprocessing station, began to run it and ignores all demands to stop these illegal actions. It’s worth mentioning that we have at our disposal all the copies of the documents given to “Martuni Cheese Factory” OJSC by “ArmRusGasArd” and other legal institutions permitting us to run the gas station. None of the documents contains a single word about “Pavel and Co.” Ltd.  Moreover, the architectural layout task #159 issued by Bagrat Haroutunyan, mayor of Martuni, on 11.07.2007, doesn’t mention Pavel and Co. Ltd. and describes “Martuni Cheese Factory” OJSC as the constructor of the reprocessing station. The gas station belongs to Pavel Baghmanyan, son of Haykaz Baghmanyan, Major-General of RoA Armed Forces. The owner of the notorious gas station runs it without a cash register and also doesn’t pay the land tax. The head of the cheese factory turned for help to the tax inspectorate many times, but all his efforts were in vain. RoA President Serge Sargsyan, RoA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Gagik Khachatryan, head of RoA State Profit Committee, constantly state on every occasion that every businessman should run his business legally and everyone is equal before the law, but till now here we have a company that functions and violates the laws, remaining unpunished at the same time. Kamo Hakobyan, head of Martuni’s State Profit Department, also stated that till now the owners of the gas station run it without a cash register. “At present we are carrying out inspections at the gas station and we have already made relevant records of the fact that there is no cash register at the gas station. At the same time Pavel and Co. is registered as a tax payer and they pay the taxes,” K Hakobyan said. It’s worth mentioning that “Pavel and Co.” has been fined for running the gas station without a cash register in December, 2008. But even after being fined, it’s already the fourth month that the gas station still functions without a cash register. Had it been a common citizen, the business would have been shut long ago. “In order to legally and peacefully solve this issue I turned to Major-General Haykaz Baghmanyan himself, as his son is a big share holder of Pavel and Co. He promised to legalize the preliminarily achieved agreement, but he broke his promise, most likely preferring not to share profit from the gas station,” Tatoul Baghdasaryan added. On June 16 and 26, 2008, in order to stop the loses their company suffers because of Pavel and Co.  as well as to avert any accidents, T. Baghdasaryan applied to S. Gambouryan, head of the “Geghama” branch of Power Networks, with the request to turn off  the electric transformer and stop the power supply, but till now he has received no reply and his efforts have  yielded no results. Moreover, A. Tokhunts, head of consumption of “Armenia’s Power Network,” in a letter demanded that S. Gambouryan stop the power supply to the consumer, until the latter submits such a request in a written form. This demand was also ignored and till now the gas station is supplied with electricity. At the same time, the cheese factory can’t cover the bills of millions of drams accumulated on its account because of Pavel and Co. “HayRusGazArd” also ignored Tatoul Baghdasaryan’s numerous letters and requests to stop the power supply to the gas station. T. Baghdasaryan also turned to other state bodies for a settlement of the issue, including the RoA President, RoA Prime Minister and RoA Justice Ministry, but failed to get any response from them. “Mr. President, I turn to you with a request, expecting that the issue I touch upon will receive the attention it deserves and will be legally settled under your personal control,” T. Baghdasaryan turns to RA President Serge Sargsyan with our help. The company is the owner of the Cheese Factory at Abovyan1, Martuni, with about 6 hectares of land, including 3.7 hectares of ownership and 2.3 hectares that are rented. This is written in the real estate document given to the company by the Martuni State Real Estate Cadastre Committee. But, quite recently, Tatoul Baghdasaryan found out that the same Martuni State Real Estate Cadastre Committee registered only 2.3 hectares of land in the ownership of the Martuni Cheese Factory, while the rest of the land belongs to Martuni Mayor’s Office. This data completely contradicts the data contained in the ownership document given on 30.10.1993. In connection with this, Vrouyr Vardanyan, head of the Martuni State Real Estate Cadastre Committee, said that a mistake had been committed and asked T. Baghdasaryan to bring the original of the ownership document to him. “Indeed, Tatoul Baghdasaryan received the ownership right by a government decision. Currently, we are investigating the case and will inform you about the details later,” V. Vardanyan added.  It’s worth mentioning that in the telephone conversation with “Hetq”, Martuni Mayor Bagrat Haroutyunyan said that Pavel and Co. Ltd. is run legally. But when we told him that we have a package of documents where the “Ltd” isn’t mentioned at all and the permissions were given to Martuni Cheese Factory, he paused for a minute and added that he will answer our questions only in a written form. In several minutes after the conversation with the mayor of Martuni, a Samvel from Martuni called me from a blocked number. According to him, a person named Karen from journalistic circles gave my phone number to him and recommended to contact me. When I told him, that I know nobody with such a name he answered that that didn’t matter. He represented himself as someone who suffered some injustice, telling that he wanted to “complain about the way the tax inspection is working.” He added he wanted me to write about the tax inspectors so that the president knows what’s happening in the country. Then he inquired which where I work and where our editorial office is located. He promised to meet me, but he didn’t come. This was not a coincident, but an attempt of Martuni mayor to make me “sober.” Tatoul Baghdasaryan turned to RA President’s Control Service. In the conversation with “Hetq”, Artzrun Torosyan, head of First Department of RoA President’s Control Service, said that they have sent 5 letters to different bodies that previously ignored the claims of T. Baghdasaryan. “We haven’t received any responses yet, but I will inform you about all the news we get in details,” Mr. Torosyan said.