June 19, 2012 - 12:25 AMT
Ex-FM has no house in Armenia, but has mansion in Glendale – paper

According to Zhamanak paper, MP from Prosperous Armenia party, former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian doesn’t have a house in Armenia; instead he has a mansion in California’s Glendale city. Ex-minister mentioned this in the application submitted to the Central Election Committee (CEC).

Oskanian purchased the house on June 3, 1996 with USD 325-350 thous. It’s a two-storied building with 9 rooms built in 1975. The money former minister paid for the house was assessed large capital investment. Apparently, he couldn’t have afforded the property only with the salary he received then, the paper says.

The price of the house almost doubled over the past few years. Presently it costs USD 700 thous, which is considered rather expensive in Glendale.

Though Oskanian is said to have neither a car, nor property exceeding USD 8 million, he had USD 1 mln.100 thous. in his bank account and 8 thous. square meter area in Armenia’s town of Tsaghkadzor as of March 1, the paper claims.