Today a protest was organized on Demirchyan Street, outside the National Assembly, against Ruben Hayrapetyan. With a poster reading “Nemets – Murderer,” Vardges Gaspari, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) activist, expressed his discontent with what had happened at Harsnakar and Ruben Hayrapetyan’s attitude. In response to our question why he was protesting, since Ruben Hayrapetyan had made a statement and fired all the workers related to the incident, he said, “Is it enough? There have always been such cases, they have closed the cases, hushed them up. This is not the first time Ruben Hayrapetyan, in particular, has done such an arbitrary thing. I, for one, remember a few incidents – they took a journalist out of a polling station, took to Harsnakar and beat up during the 2008 election, they used violence against Yerjanik Abgaryan and Gurgen Yeghiazaryan. So I remember a few cases related to Ruben Hayrapetyan alone. This is a result of inadequate response that these incidents repeat.”
According to Vardges Gaspari, no matter that they have promised to punish the perpetrators with the whole severity of the law, “isn’t it the case that no one has been arrested for four days. I don’t see any guarantee that it will be a real investigation, I absolutely don’t believe that there will be people really punished, I am not sure. Nonetheless, even if it is so, it doesn’t restrict my right to condemn it.”
In response to questions whether it hadn’t been an adequate response made by Ruben Hayrapetyan that he had fired all those workers, what else he could have done and Samvel Alexanyan had also stated yesterday that they had many workers, relatives, how they could take responsibility for the actions of all of them, Vardges Gaspari said, “I am convinced that it is not about Samvel Alexanyan’s and Ruben Hayrapetyan’s relatives, but they are the masters of those servants. The fact that conspicuous violence is less today, people don’t go to a newspaper office to beat up means that violence has decreased, it means that the society has put up with violence, it has understood where its redline is. I have come here to say that, sorry for violating ethics, I don’t give a damn for the oligarchy’s redlines, I have come to say that Ruben Hayrapetyan is a murderer, in my assessment.”
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Vardges Gaspari mentioned that Zaruhi Postanjyan, a Heritage Party MP, and ANC MPs would certainly react to his action, if they saw. We saw ANC MP Stepan Demirchyan pass by Gaspari and enter the National Assembly without paying any attention to him. Aghvan Vardanyan, an Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) MP, and Heritage Party MP Khachatur Kokobelyan also passed by indifferently.
And Samvel Alexanyan, passing by Gaspari, took away his poster. In a minute a young man approached Gaspari and knocked him down. Details in the video of A1+.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
