A Turkish court has announced a ruling over the extortion of 6,000 Turkish Lires with the pretext of solving issues related to documentation to return the Sanasaryan Home of Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshian to the Patriarchate.

As reports Timeturk.com, Aram Ateshian also participated in the final trial at the 16^th Court of Heavy Crimes of Istanbul, writes ermenihaber.am. However, the accused, Nargin hadn’t shown up to the trial. During the trial, the court showed a photo of Nargin, after which Ateshian affirmed that the person in the photo was the person with whom he had met and whom he had transferred 6,000 Turkish Lires. The court acknowledged the accused, Kemal Taifun Nargin guilty of “predetermined fraud”, sentencing him to 4 years in prison and fining him 16,000 Lires.

Accusatory Conclusion:

“During a reception in 2013, General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Aram Ateshian and then Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan had a conversation about returning the Sanasaryan Home to the Patriarchate. During the conversation, Erdogan had promised to organize the corresponding process and to make sure there would be as few obstacles as possible.

Three or four days later, Nargin called Ateshian and presented himself as the inspector of the department of state property adjunct to the government.

Later, Nagin went to the Patriarchate and informed that the decision on the return of the Sanasaryan Home had been taken, Ateshian had signed some documents and had demanded and received 6,000 Turkish Lires as expenses for documentation. After a while, Ateshian asked the government about Nargin and understood that he was a victim of fraud, after which he sued Nargin under the charge of predetermined fraud.”