ARMENIA: ATTACK ON MAYOR RAISES POLITICAL TENSIONS
EurasiaNet, NY
April 3 2007
The drive-by shooting of a senior member of Armenia’s ruling Republican
Party is heightening concern about Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary
elections. Many observers fear that the incident is somehow linked
with the May 12 vote. Government investigators are still scrambling
to identify a possible motive for the attack, however.
Vardan Ghukasian, mayor of Armenia’s second largest city, Gyumri,
and his staff came under gunfire late in the evening of April 2 while
returning to Gyumri from a meeting of the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia in Yerevan. At the gathering, party leaders made acting
chairman and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian their choice to become
prime minister, replacing Andranik Markarian, who died from a heart
attack on March 25. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive.]
A car with unidentified license plates sprayed Ghukasian’s
Mercedes-Benz automobile and another car accompanying the mayor with
automatic gunfire near the town of Ashtarak on the northward-bound
Yerevan-Gyumri highway. Three security guards died on the spot;
Ghukasian, Deputy Mayor Gagik Manukian and the mayor’s driver were
badly wounded. The driver subsequently died from his wounds.
Ghukasian and Manukian were reportedly in serious, but stable
condition.
A criminal investigation is underway, according to the General
Prosecutor’s Office. No arrests have yet been made. While investigators
have not publicly speculated on motives, the shooting is already
been classified as an assassination attempt against Ghukasian. The
46-year-old mayor acts as head of Republican Party operations for the
district of Shirak in northern Armenia, one of the party’s largest
chapters. Ghukasian, known for an occasionally flamboyant temper,
is also widely reputed to hold a tight rein over business activities
in Gyumri, a town of about 150,900 in northern Armenia that is also
home to a Russian military base.
One opposition leader argues that the shooting is a sign of trouble
to come in connection with Armenia’s upcoming May 12 parliamentary
vote. "During a press conference this year, I said that blood would be
shed in Armenia during the elections, and this is only the beginning,"
commented Democratic Way Party Chairman Manuk Gasparian.
Like other observers critical of the government, however, he notes
that it "is not ruled out" that Ghukasian’s alleged business interests
played a role.
"But it is obvious that this incident will weaken the Republican
Party," Gasparian continued. "Ghukasian will become more cautious
and perhaps will refrain from using ‘strong-arm tactics’ during the
upcoming elections."
In Gyumri, city hall officials said they were baffled by the attack.
"The mayor has no enemies," Artyom Mazmanian, head of the Gyumri city
administration, commented to EurasiaNet. "We cannot say anything,
we ourselves were taken by surprise," Mazmanian added. "He has never
received threats, or been harassed by anyone."
Another widely disseminated theory contends that Ghukasian was planning
to drop his Republican Party membership and join the increasingly
powerful rival Prosperous Armenia Party.
The Republican Party, however, has flatly denied Ghukasian was
mulling such a switch. "It is ruled out. This talk is the result of
fantasizing," Republican Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov said
during an April 3 press conference in Yerevan.
In a statement released April 3, the Republican Party demanded
that "law enforcement bodies solve the crime quickly and strictly
punish those responsible." The statement concluded, however, with an
observation that only underlines the worries about possible political
motives for the attack. "Any encroachment against the stability of
public life is doomed to failure," the statement said.
Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a reporter for the Armenianow.com
weekly in Yerevan.