The rise of revanchist forces led by the "Karabakh clan" in Armenia is not surprising when the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, discussions on a future peace agreement that will regulate relations between two neighbor countries, which have been enemies for long years, are on agenda. On top of it, they pretend to commit the most unthinkable deeds to damage the peace process with help of supporters abroad, to prevent the normalization of Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan and Turkiye.
However, there is another remarkable point in the process. Wife of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Anna Hakobyan’s serving purposes and intentions to revanchist-terrorists with her last action. Armenia’s First Lady met with a criminal person, who illegally acted in Azerbaijan’s formerly occupied territories. Especially during which period? We remind once more during a period when discussion of a Peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is on an agenda.
We are talking about Vartan Sirmakes. Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobyan met with businessman Vartan Sirmakes in Zurich at the end of May this year during her visit to Switzerland.
And who is Sirmakes and why meeting with him should be assessed as damage to normalization and peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia?
Companies of businessman of an Armenian origin Vartan Sirmakes, who is living in Switzerland and internationally wanted, are among those companies which were involved in illegal business in formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia. Sirmakes, who is General Director and Co-founder of Switzerland’s luxury watch brand “Franck Muller”, is a person who was directly related to illegal exploitation of Kalbajar’s “Soyudlu” and Zangilan’s “Vejnali” deposits during the occupation period. Golden products, illegally obtained from deposits in the territory of Azerbaijan, have been put on sale on Switzerland’s bourses.
In October 2014, Gold Star CJSC started the exploitation of gold mines nearby the Zangilan region’s Vejnali village ( it is called Tundurget by Armenia) which was under Armenian occupation at that time. The project was financed by namely Vartan Sirmakes.
Back in 2001, the Armenian site Panarmenian reported that Franck Muller company would start the production of first-class watches in Armenia. According to Georgi Muradyan, the representative of the company, Japanese technique was brought to Armenia in this regard. However, the information disseminated by the Arminfo agency noted that only golden frames for watches would be produced in Armenia. Of course, this gold was produced illegally in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Note that Former Armenian President Serg Sargsyan appointed Vartan Sirmakes consul general of the country in Marseille (France). While in 2017, during his visit to Geneva (Switzerland) Sargsyan awarded Sirmakes “For services to the motherland order” for his contributions to the development of the Armenian economy, as well as numerous philanthropy and public activities. Interestingly, money provided for “charity”, as well as gold of watches produced by Franck Muller were obtained directly on account of illegal exploitation conducted in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
Vartan Sirmakes is also owner of 66,3 percent shares of ArtsakhBank illegally operating in Karabakh. In addition, he is a main shareholder of ArtsakhHEK. He also financed the construction of infrastructure constructed by Golden Fish company nearby Sugovushan village of Tartar region, for black caviar production, as well as the construction of a fishing plant. He attended the construction of a water reservoir in Lachin (source: https://narcokarabakh.net/en/profiles/sirmakes).
Vartan Sirmakes’s this and other illegal acts are very known to the Azerbaijani state. Back in 2015, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case against Vartan Sirmakes and placed him on the international wanted list.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the investigation is underway under Articles 281.2 (public incitement against the state), 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan), and 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship) of the Criminal Code on entering the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by the Armenian Armed Forces illegally crossing the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan without established documents and outside the checkpoints, engaging in illegal entrepreneurship in those territories and making open calls against the state
On November 11, 2015, Sirmakes was arrested and put on an international search by the decision of the Nasimi District Court of Baku City. on the grounds that he had been charged under the above-mentioned articles of the Criminal Code, as sufficient evidence had been gathered to establish the charges.
Necessary investigation and search operations are carried out by the National Central Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan of Interpol to arrest and involve V. Sirmakes in the investigation.
In 2020, Vartan Sirmankes was declared internationally wanted for plundering the Vejnali gold deposit, and the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan requested the Swiss authorities to provide international legal assistance.
The fact that the wife of the Prime Minister of Armenia met with a criminal wanted by Azerbaijan and received a valuable gift from him raises serious questions.
Anna Hakobyan noted on her official Facebook page that she discussed many issues with V. Sirmakes after a long and difficult break.
Although Anna Hakobyan did not mention that she received a gift from Sirmakes at the meeting, the Armenian press exposed this fact. Jokhovurd newspaper reports that during the meeting with the Armenian ambassador to Switzerland and the local Armenian community (V. Sirmakes also attended the meeting), Pashinyan's wife was given a valuable gift.
Guess what? Expensive watches. Maybe, that watch has been prepared from the gold gained as a result of the illegal exploitation of the occupied gold deposits of Azerbaijan. So, is not Anna Akopyan, who wears that precious watch on her arm that was purchased from Sirmkes, declared international wanted by Azerbaijan, aware that she damages the normalization process led by her husband?
She is aware, and it is more like a two-headed game. Currently, although the intensity of meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian governments aims at achieving peace in the region, Anna Hakobyan's meeting with criminal V. Sirmakes casts doubt on the positive tendency.
Armenian officials understand that the development of the region is impossible without having mutual respect and peace between the neighbors. Such illegal steps of Armenia's first lady are unfortunate and cast doubt on the sincerity of the political elite. The act of Anna Akopyan can be never considered a calculated step towards the normalization of relations, on contrary, it must be considered as damage to this process.
It is unacceptable that Armenia still continues to contact the criminals who were engaged in illegal activity in Karabakh. Azerbaijani state is aware of all of such steps. Steps aimed at Azerbaijan by Armenia, as well as other states, are not missed out, adequate steps are taken when it is needed and will be taken.
In a period that it is attempted to start a peace process between the two countries, the meeting of Anna Akopyan with a person who was engaged in looting in Karabakh and declared a criminal by Azerbaijan and put on the international wanted list put Armenia’s intention to begin the era of coexistence, peace, coexistence under the question.
If Yerevan is sincere in the peace process, it should take steps to contribute to the normalization process. What we observe still is that the lady of the Prime Minister is among those taking steps damaging the normalization process. This in turn casts serious doubt on the sincerity of the official Yerevan.
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