Bagratashen Customs Chief Assaults Businessman Arthur Kharatian with Staff

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports that on the night of July 25, the head of the Bagratashen customs checkpoint, Gegham Vanunian, assaulted businessman Arthur Kharatian with his employees and prohibited the shipment from leaving the customs territory. Kharatian, who is the owner of the German company "Deutsche Post," arranges deliveries from Germany to Armenia. He narrates that after completing the customs formalities for his shipment and sitting in his car to head to Yerevan, Gegham Vanunian called him out of the vehicle, threatened him, cursed, yelled, and ultimately attacked him.

"You’re in the place of Shmays, you bring this kind of trash every month," the customs chief allegedly said, and then he and his staff assaulted Kharatian, twisting his arms and seizing the keys to the truck, effectively detaining the vehicle. Yesterday, Arthur Kharatian filed a complaint with the National Security Service detailing the incident at the Armenian customs border, which should serve as an exemplary area in all respects. He also visited the State Revenue Committee to demand the return of his shipment.

"I am the one making decisions here, top down, do it. They spoke to me as if they were in charge. They are shameless people left over from the old Republicans. I have always paid them the 1000 euros every time I crossed customs; now that it’s not reaching them, I’m paying the state, and it feels bad," Kharatian shared about his experience.

He recounted, "The customs officers did not identify themselves. When I asked them to present themselves, they replied, 'Who are you that we should identify ourselves to you?' A couple of them came next to me and started hitting me in the stomach with fists and kicking my legs. There was a deputy head of customs from Vanadzor named Melikyan, a shameless character, who struck first." The altercation was reportedly due to discrepancies that arose during the customs clearance. Kharatian, a citizen of Germany who has been conducting postal shipments from this country since 2017, expressed that he consistently faces problems because they cannot fill out the accompanying cargo documents correctly at Bagratashen. Therefore, he brings along a pre-filled form, and this time the customs officials noticed a difference between the weight noted in the documents and the actual weight of the shipment.

Read the full article in today’s edition of the newspaper.