ARMENIA: RESTAURANT KILLING RAISES BROADER CONCERNS
By Nvard Hovhannisyan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting IWPR
Caucasus Reporting #649
July 6 2012
UK
Groundswell of anger over fatal assault on doctor who was barred,
then beaten for dressing too casually.
The violent death of army doctor Vahe Avetyan at a restaurant
in Yerevan continues to cause waves of anger in Armenia, where
campaigners and opposition politicians blame a culture of impunity
among the country’s ruling classes.
Major Avetyan was assaulted at the restaurant on June 17, allegedly
first by a waiter who refused to admit him because he was wearing
sports gear, and then by security guards, who also beat two other
army doctors who were with Avetyan.
Avetyan died 12 days later in hospital without ever regaining
consciousness.
The incident caught the public’s attention because the restaurant was
owned by the family of Ruben Hayrapetyan, a member of parliament and
chairman of the Armenian Football Federation.
On June 30, the day after Avetyan’s death, hundreds of people lit
candles outside the restaurant where the attack happened. Some held
up banners saying “I am Vahe”.
On June 1, 2 and 4, similar demonstrations took place outside the
president’s official residence, outside parliament, and outside
the prosecutor general’s office. The protesters demanded a full
investigation and called on Hayrapetyan to step down from parliament
and from the football federation.
“Vahe Avetyan’s case is unique in that the victim was one of
us…. This case has sparked concern even in sections of society that
were apolitical before,” Tsovinar Nazaryan, a journalist who joined
the protests, said.
Four parties – Dashnaktsutyun, Heritage, Prosperous Armenia and the
Armenian National Congress – have demanded a parliamentary debate on
the murder.
On July 4, Hayrapetyan had a meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan
and announced his resignation.
“I feel a moral obligation to resign my mandate as a deputy of the
Armenian National Assembly. I ask all who voted for me to forgive me
for being unable to meet their expectations, but I am certain I had to
take this step,” he said. “I hope that one day, I will be forgiven by
Vahe’s family. Whatever happens, I will do all I can to achieve that.”
Opposition politicians said the politician’s remarks were not nearly
enough.
Nikol Pashinyan of the Armenian National Congress party warned against
any attempt to “consign the murder of Vahe Avetyan to oblivion”.
“We must do everything we can to ensure that it is not forgotten,
because if we do forget, if we do fail to ensure the public is aware
of it, that will mean we are giving assent for more such incidents,”
Pashinyan said.
Hayrapetyan has denied any involvement with or connection with the
restaurant assault.
The public anger sparked by the incident comes after previous cases
where guards employed by politicians have been accused of assaulting
people, and have got off lightly.
Avetik Ishkhanyan, head of the Armenian Helsinki Association, a human
rights group, described witnessing an incident where bodyguards of
a member of parliament beat a man called Andranik Babayan.
“When I called the police and asked why they couldn’t arrest them,
they replied that they were powerless to do so,” he said.
Babayan, 35, died later in hospital without having regained
consciousness.
Ishkhanyan recalled another incident in 2001, when a bodyguard of then
president Robert Kocharyan attacked and killed a man in a cafe toilet.
The victim, Poghos Poghosyan, had reportedly addressed the president
with the words, “Hi, Bob.”
Babayan’s killer served only six months, while the bodyguard convicted
of murdering Poghosyan received a suspended sentence of two years.
Ishkhanyan said perpetrators were generally punished only when the
level of public anger became too great to be ignored, but even then,
the sentences imposed were nominal.
Zaruhi Postanjyan, a parliamentarian from the Heritage Party, said
such light penalties were clearly no deterrent.
The Dashnaktsutyun party has been pushing for eight years to regulate
the private security guard industry. It wants to impose a licensing
system, testing and standard uniforms, to make it illegal to hire
more than three bodyguards, and to bar public officials from having
any private guards.
Ishkhanyan was dubious about whether new legislation would change
anything.
“The problem in Armenia is not the laws, but how they are observed,”
he said. “The laws we have now allow for punishment. New laws or
legislative amendments are basically there just as a demonstrative
sign to the domestic and international public,” he said.
Nvard Hovhannisyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
From: A. Papazian