V. Oskanyan: “How I purchased my house”
Vardan Oskanyan's message on his Facebook page:
"Some media outlets have already started discrediting me. One of those outlets has posted a photo of my house in California and has stated that I purchased that house in 1996 (when I was still Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs) for 350,000 dollars and asks how Oskanyan purchased that house.
First, I must say that I purchased that house in 1988 when the Soviet Union still hadn't collapsed and Armenian still hadn't declared its independence. I purchased it not for 350,000 dollars, but 500,000. My younger son, Arman was born in that house in 1988. Secondly, to those who know me, the Oskanyans, starting from Marash, have been involved in jewelry and diamond production. They have been mainly based in Aleppo, from where they later moved to Lebanon, Belgium and the United States.
I must say that in all times, our family has been the leader in this field. It should be easy for any rational person to conclude that a family that has been involved in jewelry and diamond production for 150 years and has always been the leader in those fields had to have had accumulated something throughout those years, especially taking into account the high, unprecedented prices of gold today.
But what I mentioned above was not important. I simply said that.
The important thing is that in 1991, this was the kind of life that I left behind in America and moved to Armenia with my family because I believed in the idea, had a goal and a dream. Today, contrary to all this, nothing has changed. I continue to believe that it is possible to build the country of our dreams, and if anything has changed throughout these years, it has only made me dream more."
