VIDEO: Seyran Ohanyan Granted Power of Attorney to Sell Military Base Land

The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia today discussed the first petition from the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding granting consent to initiate criminal proceedings against Seyran Ohanyan, the head of the "Armenia" faction and former Minister of Defense.

Seyran Ohanyan authorized Armen Hakobyan, head of the Ministry of Defense's capital construction and troop housing department, to act on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. Based on this authorization, a sales agreement was signed on January 13, 2009, at the Notary Office of the Ministry of Justice in Yerevan, between Armen Hakobyan and Grigori Khachaturov, the commander of the military unit, with Edgar Arshakyan, a person related to them, without revealing the actual buyer.

According to the contract, land located at 24/1 Yerevan Highway in the Armash community of Ararat province, with a cadastral value of 2 million 664 thousand dram, and existing buildings on it, valued at 8 million 895 thousand 600 dram (including a military base headquarters of 252.8 square meters, barracks of 366.4 square meters, a dining facility of 186.9 square meters, a total of 630.6 square meters of building, roofing, a club, a boiler room, restrooms, and checkpoint areas), were sold for a mere 4 million dram to Grigori Khachaturov, significantly below market value. However, the real estate transferred under the contract was registered in the name of Edgar Arshakyan at the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre's Vedi division, thus distorting the actual ownership of the property.

The commission of the aforementioned criminal acts by Seyran Mushegh Ohanyan has been confirmed by several factual data obtained during the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, specifically municipal decisions No. 34 and 35 by the head of the Armash community dated July 11, 2005, and the examination of confiscated cadastre files No. 12010452 and 12058124 from the Cadastre Committee.

A record was filed concerning the examination of documents present in the notarial records regarding the transfer of land areas and buildings of units "Yeraskh-1" and "Yeraskh-2" seized from the Notary Office of the Ministry of Justice, confirming the contracts for the sale of real estate. Seyran Ohanyan has refused to give testimony regarding the sale of these land parcels while utilizing his right to assert that no criminal proceedings should be conducted against him due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.