The 16^th Court for Heavy Crimes of Istanbul held a trial for the case that Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshian has filed against Kemal Taifun Nargin. According to Haberler, Ateshian has sued Nargin for embezzling 6,000 Turkish lira with the pretext of organizing a legal procedure to have the structure called “Sanasaryan House” returned to the Patriarchate, writes ermenihaber.am.

Ateshian’s lawsuit reads that during a reception held in 2013, Nargin had a conversation about returning the “Sanasaryan House” to the Patriarchate with then Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan. During the conversation, Erdogan had promised to organize the process and try to rule out as many hindrances as possible.

Three or four days later, Nargin called Ateshian and presented himself as an inspector from the Department of State Properties adjunct to the Government.

Afterwards, Nargin went to the Patriarchate and informed that the decision on returning the “Sanasaryan House” had been taken, he had made Ateshian sign some documents and had demanded and received 6,000 Turkish lira as expenses for the preparation of documents. After a while, Ateshian asked government officials about Nargin and understand that he had become a victim of fraud, after which Ateshian sued Nargin for malicious fraud.

During the trial, which plaintiff Aram Ateshian didn’t show up to, the suspect Nargin denied the allegations, saying that he had actually visited the Patriarchate, but as an Armenian language translator since the MIT (National Intelligence Service) was supposed to check Ateshian’s Armenian documents in relation to the case. Mentioning that he had also worked for the MIT until 2012, Nargin said he had only read the Armenian documents and denied the allegations of taking money from Ateshian. The judicial committee has decided to postpone the session until it sends a letter to Nargin to clarify whether he had worked for the MIT or not.