Fed Up or Breaking Ruben Hairapetyan
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 13:19:19 – 23/08/2012
f summer may be the beginning of an active autumn. I don’t mean the
municipal elections, preparations for the upcoming presidential ones or the
foreign political orientation of Armenia, but the ongoing and irrevocable
process of establishment of civil control on the activities of the
authorities.
The process, which is unfolded around the Harsnakar story, may be decisive
in this sense. The group of lawyers, journalists and civil activists
insistently don’t want to reconcile with the lack of punishment for the
oligarch. They bring more proves of Ruben Hairapetyan’s involvement in Vahe
Avetyan’s murder in Harsnakar restaurant. This insistence is not supported
by foreign grants or `competing’ groups, but the firm conviction which
makes the lawyers work free of charge.
Everyone is fed up with the situation when the law enforcement bodies,
instructed by the authorities, will never harm the oligarch, that the
society, journalists, lawyers even having combined their efforts are unable
to break down the vicious tradition. Everyone is tired of acknowledging
their weakness in front of the system, of giving bribes at each step, of
being afraid of speaking loudly about the guilt of the `untouchable
figures’.
When not only young activists, but also lawyers, who always deal with good
money, agree to work free of charge, it means a lot. This means that the
end of the impunity is coming and any case may be the last attempt of the
system to defend its oligarch.
The Harsnakar case is not ruled out to be the very last case and the
lawyers, with the help of the civil society, are possible to prove Ruben
Hairapetyan’s involvement in the assassination. They have already managed
to prove the deliberate concealment of certain facts by the police. And now
the question is not that the law enforcement agencies protect Hairapetyan,
it has already been proved, but the question is how long they will be able
to sustain the civil assault.
The behavior of the power also proves the fact that Ruben Hairapetyan’s
case may be the exemplary demolition of the oligarchic arbitrariness. Right
after the initiative and the first wave of protest, Hairapetyan was called
to the presidential office, after which he issued a statement of apology
and informed about laying down his parliamentary mandate.
But the laying down of the mandate was necessary to the presidential
administration not for saving Ruben Hairapetyan but for saving the image of
the parliament. Now, when Hairapetyan is officially out of the power,
nothing can hinder surrendering him, sure, excluding the financial
calculations and `brother relations’. But this is nothing in relation to
the civil wave, which will most likely arise in the beginning of autumn.
The hard work of the lawyers is a proof.
For the last 2-3 years, much has changed in Armenia: the society has grown,
the authorities `has turned tail’ and is involuntarily looking at the
public opinion, even meet it. Ruben Hairapetyan apparently not didn’t
understand this, when, according to some information, instructed his
security guards to teach the medical officers. But he has clearly
understood everything, and now he is willing to pay much in order to limit
his permissiveness, but not appear behind bars.
But what can he do?