Recently, the Armenian Brandy Factory has become the center of
attention once again. This time, deputy of the National Assembly
“Artarutyun” (Justice) union Aram Sargsyan is calling on everyone to
focus on the legalities, shady enterprise and how the French “Perno
Ricar” company, the new owner of the factory, fulfills the requirements
stated in the new contract signed between the Armenian Brandy Factory
and the company. Mr. Sargsyan believes that “Perno Ricar” is not
fulfilling the requirements on purpose and that that can have a
negative effect on the brandy factory. He is even suggesting on forming
a temporary board and solving that problem through the means of getting
signatures. One thing is unclear: what is Mr. Sargsyan complaining
about? According to Aram G. Sargsyan and based on the French company’s
statistics, he claims that the spirit used for making the brandy used
to be 1.6 million deciliters before the transaction. “According to the
contract, “Perno Ricar” was supposed to donate the same amount of
spirit that it had received so that a supply always remains. They have
not met the most important requirement stated in the contract and that
is just fatal for our factory,” says the National Assembly deputy. The
deputy adds that the antique and valuable spirit used for making the
brandy is one of our rich, national assets and in Mr. Sargsyan’s words,
it is that value that has not been considered as the value of the
factory as a whole when signing the contract. “If the 1.6 million
deciliters of spirit were evaluated, then the price of the factory
would rise,” he says. Recently, Aram G. Sargsyan found out that even
though the “Perno Ricar” company has purchased the Yerevan Brandy
factory for $28 million dollars, it has estimated its price to be $770
million dollars. “Now do you see how we let something like that slip
out of our hands? This is why I say that we should form a temporary
board so that they can see if the company truly fulfills the
requirements stated in the contract,” said deputy Aram Sargsyan.
However, this transaction was done about eight years ago. Why is Mr.
Sargsyan discussing this now? “What, do you think that I want to buy
the factory for myself?” asks Mr. Sargsyan and adds that it is
necessary to check the transaction contracts signed by “ArmenTel”, the
airport, and network communications as well. However, the deputy does
not suggest forming temporary boards at the National Assembly to do the
job. Why is it so important to form a temporary board to deal with the
Yerevan Brandy Factory? “If I had enough evidence, I would go further
with this and deal with the airport also,” says Sargsyan. Aram Sargsyan
states that the government should be the one doing what he is doing and
adds that if he was an authority figure, he would check to make sure
the transaction contracts being signed are legal. What remains unclear
is why the authorities have to sit and think about whether or not their
contracts are legal. In any case, the same National Assembly temporary
board was formed when a contract was being signed with “ArmenTel”, but
the board did not achieve anything. What hopes does Aram Sargsyan have
now by creating a board for the factory? “I don’t hope for anything. I
have principles which help me take action and get where I want to go,”
says A. Sargsyan. You get the impression that Aram Sargsyan himself
doesn’t know what the outcome will be after all of this. “I don’t think
that the present day authorities will stay the same and that I will
keep thinking about what I am going to do next. If I don’t succeed now,
I will try again and when I feel that it is the right time, I will
demand to see documents which prove that everything is in order.”
According to Sargsyan, he only wants to prevent what’s going on
nowadays. A. Sargsyan has sent letters to all the unions of the
National Assembly and has already received an evasive response from the
coalition representatives. The National Assembly deputy also informed
us that he is going to start getting signatures during the next
four-day National Assembly session for the creation of a temporary
National Assembly board which will deal with the Yerevan Brandy
factory.
