PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenians – A Favorite Target For Moscow Skinheads
According to statistics, among other ethnic minorities
the Russian Nazi more often attack Armenians.
26.04.2006 GMT+04:00
Saturday incident in one of Moscow underground stations resulting in
the murder of 17-year-old Vigen Abrahamyants has aroused a wave of
protest in the Armenian community. The fact that the murder was
committed on the eve of the 91st anniversary of Armenian genocide and
immediately after Nazis celebrated Adolph Hitler’s birthday, gave a
special coloring to the incident. Law enforcing organs keep on
insisting that it was just a domestic crime and did not have any
nationalistic motives. Is it true or not? Further investigation will
show. In any case it is obvious that lately Armenians have been
attacked by Russian skinheads more often than other ethnic minorities.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It is evident that in Russia nationalistic crimes
tend to rise in number. This can be proved by the non-official
statistics tracked by Russian social structures. On April 6 Russian
`Sova’ information-analytic center published a report on ethnic hatred
crimes committed from December 2005 to February 2006. The report was
prepared by candidate of historical sciences Galina
Kojevnikova. According to the report, more than 40 attacks on
foreigners have been registered in Russia during the past three winter
months. During only 90 days 91 foreigners have become victims of
skinheads. 6 of the victims were killed. 3 people were killed already
after summing up of the report. As compared with the same period of
last year the number of attacks has risen by 25 percents. Those are
only well known cases. But how many unknown cases there can be? It is
noteworthy that all the registered incidents took place in
Moscow. However, that does not mean that in the provinces skinheads
are more `humane’ to foreigners. The thing is that in the capital
nationalistic crimes receive more publicity.
The report of `Sova’ information-analytic center allows noticing that
recently the aggression of skinheads has been spreading mainly on
Armenians. According to the report since the beginning of the year
racists have killed 7 people, 5 of which were Armenians. (Whereas
Armenians make up 10 percents among `non-Russians’. For instance in
Russia there are more Azeris than Armenians). Of course we can view
those incidents as coincidence and refer to the fact that in the
majority of cases criminals did not even know the nationality of their
victims. But there are already too much of those coincidences. Why do
the skinheads attack Armenians more often? Maybe because Armenians
make skinheads more nervous because of their achievements? The
prosperity of many Russian Armenians is sometimes really
striking. However we still cannot exclude the possibility of
instructions from forces which patron and coordinate the actions of
skinhead bands. In this respect, especially suspicious is the fact
that attacks on Armenians became more often exactly on the eve of the
genocide anniversary.
Official structures treat the statistics with distrust. They have
their own statistics. According to the official version, since the
beginning of 2006 11 attacks for national motives have been registered
in Russia. According to law enforcing organs – four times
more. Anyway, it is hard to deny facts. The fact that five Armenians
have been killed since the beginning of 2006 can be proved. In all the
cases there were evidences allowing speaking about racist motives of
the committed crimes. Here are the examples of concrete cases,
mentioned in the report of `Sova’ analytical center. 13-year-old
Evgeny Baghdasaryan was killed in Moscow on January 7. His body with
34 knife wounds was found in the street. On January 9 on the Caucasian
boulevard to the South of Moscow, four unknown people dressed in short
black jackets, black jeans and army boots knifed 52-year-old Hayk
Dolukhanyan who died of loss of blood. On February 15 in the central
part of Moscow unknown people killed a 29-year-old citizen of Armenia
who had 14 knife wounds on his body. On March 16, five teenagers beat
23-year-old Robert Feroyan and his sister Maya in the Monino-Moscow
train carriage and pushed the out in Tayinskaya railway
station. Robert died of 7 knife wounds. His sister is seriously
wounded. The arrested criminals had Fascist literature. The latest
case was the murder of Vigen Abrahamyants and again national
intolerance in considered as a possible motive. By the way, the
Abrahamyants family has already come across the so-called national
intolerance. In January 1990 the Abrahamyants ran away from Azerbaijan
massacres of Armenians were still under way.
This was the statistics of murders. The list of seriously wounded is
much longer. Let’s bring several examples. On December 5, at 19:30 on
Polbyn Street in Moscow criminals stabbed a 34-year-old Armenian. Late
in January two students – an Armenian and an Azeri, were severely
beaten by skinheads near a dormitory in Yoshkar-Ola. On the 28th of
March in the center of Yekaterinburgh three teenagers beat two
Armenian born people. And the latest case was the attack on the
Secretary of the Cinematographers Union of Armenia Michael
Dovlatyan. Law enforcing bodies are doing their best to class the
nationalistic crimes in the category of common crimes. The
abovementioned incident on Polbyn Street is a perfect proof of the
idea. Witnesses say that the attackers were close-cut, in jeans and
army boots. Thus, they looked just like skinheads. Anyway, the Russian
police keep on insisting that the incident was just a robbery attack
without any national motive. In her interview to `Caucasian network’
Internet portal the author of `Sova’ analytical center report Galina
Kojevnikova mentioned about the deliberate striving of law enforcing
bodies to conceal real motives of the crimes. As an example proving
the fact, Kojevnikova mentioned the judicial proceedings in Sverdlovsk
district. On December 7 the Judge announced the verdict of teenagers
who in May 2005 killed three Armenian workers. According to
investigation materials after committing the crime murderers returned
to a cafe where in the presence of witnesses they announced to have
`cleaned up’ the city. Despite this fact, the court did not consider
the ethnic hatred factor in the crime committed.
So what can Russian Armenians do to resist the rising threat? Shall
they rely on the police and hope that they will protect them? Few
people believe in the potential of police. Moreover, the leaders of
the Armenian community of Russia have grounds to suppose that
skinheads are directly or indirectly patronized by representatives of
state power. On Monday in the interview to Russian journalists the
president of the Union of Russian Armenians Ara Abrahamyan said that
the outburst of the Nazi would be impossible if they were not
supported by certain officials and employees of law enforcing
bodies. In the near future the Union of Russian Armenians is going to
organize a round-table discussion with the participation of
representatives of other ethnic communities to discuss the current
situation and work out measures of resistance against
Nazism. Meanwhile, some Moscow Armenians have already determined to go
for radical measures. On Monday they expressed their protest by
blocking Noviy Arbat Street.
It is worth mentioning that similar attacks are organized not only on
ethnic Armenians having Russian citizenship, but also citizens of
Armenia. Thus, it is not only the problem of the Armenian community
but also official Yerevan and political leaders of our country have to
express their reaction. Racism murders cannot but stir up anti-Russian
moods, which have recently spread in Armenia. Impunity of the Nazi
will bring to a point when more and more people in Yerevan will seek
alternatives to the pro-Russian political orientation of our
country. Like it or not, the problem is being politicalized and it
seems that consideration of the issue on a political level is
inevitable.
PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress