While attending yesterday’s Assembly of Bishops in Etchmiadzin, a reporter from the Arajin Lratvakan new site asked Ararat Diocesan Locum Tenens Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan to comment about his involvement in the Cyprus offshore scandal recently uncovered by Hetq.

-          Your Holiness, you’ve never issued a denial about the offshore scandal.

-          I have already answered that question.

-          But why haven’t you issued any clarification?

-          What is there to clarify? Are there any charges against me to clarify? Are there any charges against me to clarify?

I am at a loss for words as to why Navasard (Samvel) Kjoyan has yet to be questioned by law enforcement regarding the fact that he appears on Cypriot Registry documents as a shareholder in two offshore companies.

The Archbishop is a close friend of diamond jeweler Ashot Sukiasyan, who is now on the run and being sought by Armenian Police, having been charged with embezzling millions in loans from AmeriaBank.

In fact, Kjoyan and Sukiasyan are known to have travelled to Cyprus together.

What I also find incomprehensible is why law enforcement hasn’t yet seized the Bentley limousine that Sukiasyan gave to Kjoyan as a gift.

Sukiasyan purchased the half million dollar car with loan money he got from AmeriaBank and for which he placed assets belonging to Paylak Hayrapetyan as collateral.

The bishops attending the meeting in Etchmiadzin should be raising the question as to why Kjoyan, a high ranking clergyman, receives such expensive gifts while 40% of his flock lives in poverty.

After all, what else is left for the bishops to discuss if not the corruption in their ranks?