On the occasion of the events tied to this deputy, a new word was added to the terminology of Armenian economy and politics -the “balloon”. It’s worth mentioning that the person who came up with this word was once again President Robert Kocharyan. “The anti-criminal movement’s “balloon” popped,” said the president, hinting that the movement activists were trying to defend the criminal deputy of the National Assembly.
But H. Hakobyan’s case is bringing into the light something so humiliating, which Armenian authorities like to call “economic policy”. For example, functionaries are advising exporters that suffered from the evaluation of the Armenian dram to perfect themselves, to become more competitive, etc. Then they talk about the need to cut down shady economy, fight against corruption, super profits, etc. but what they’re really doing is the opposite.
In Armenian reality, the businessman can’t go one day in the market by obeying the laws or paying taxes because his competitors will be in a better state than him. But what is the state doing about this? It shows that it’s fighting against shady economy by molesting the owners of the kiosks and fair pavilions, but the reality is that it’s doing nothing at all. The reason isn’t that it can’t do anything or doesn’t have the resources-not in the least. The “poor” international organizations, in their turn, give advice, give grants and help fill in the blanks of the legislation. Nobody stands up to say ‘don’t you understand, we don’t want to eliminate the shady economy; end of discussion.”
But why don’t they? There are two reasons: first of all, the money from shady economy flows to the pockets of the highest authorities. So, they’re not causing themselves any harm. The second reason is also significant: The authorities don’t care about the illegalities of the businessmen, but they don’t forget about them and register them somewhere. And if anyone of them “does a bad thing”, disobeys, criticizes or contradicts, then the public prosecutors or other structures will find them and bring all the illegalities that they have committed during the years into the light. “Steal, but under our veil”-here is the simple logic of Armenia’s economic policy.
There is yet another thing that is debatable. According to the statement by the prosecution, Hakob Hakobyan avoided paying taxes and the state budget of Armenia suffered a 271 million dram loss (half a million dollars). So, H. Hakobyan cheated on the state and hid his income.
What’s interesting is to know which crime is worse-Hakob Hakobyan’s crime or the sale of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline of strategic significance to the Russians and then lying to the people? As stated in one of the Armenian presses, Russian parliamentarians, who are currently in Armenia, have documents proving that as of March 31, 2006, the Armenian government and “GasProm” signed a contract, according to which Armenia handed over the 5th energy block of the Hrazdan Water/Electricity Station and the 40 kilometer section of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline to the Russians and that they have to be handed over by January 1, 2007. The government has already handed over the 5th block. I tried to find out from “ArmRusGazard” whether that transaction had already been made, however the company representatives said that they couldn’t give an answer because they haven’t been a part of the negotiations; only the government has negotiated with “GasProm”. But Armenians remember how Robert Kocharyan was “coming to terms” with the company head Karen Karapetyan. Otherwise, we get the following: the government and “GasProm” decide to give the gas pipeline to “ArmRusGazard”, but this company doesn’t know what kind of present it’s getting. “Perhaps we know, but we can’t make any comments. You can ask the government for comments,” said “ArmRusGazard”. But head of the government, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan has been in France for the past week and I haven’t been able to get information from him.
In any case, everything will be clear by January 1 of next year and if it turns out that they’re going to hand the gas pipeline over to the Russians, then the state officials will have committed a crime by keeping everything a secret from the society. It’s interesting: will the chief prosecutor of Armenia arrest the higher authorities behind all this, or is cheating on others allowed in Armenia?