The protest organized in commemoration of Doctor Vahe Avetyan, who was violently beaten at Harsnakar Restaurant owned by Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP Ruben Hayrapetyan on June 17, ended outside the Government Building. The march with slogans and chants like “The end of the internal enemy has come,” “Armenia without oligarchs,” “Punish the oligarch and his bodyguards,” “You will not get away with that” started outside the Presidential Palace and continued in front of the National Assembly building, where the protesters demanded to punish the one who was really guilty of Vahe Avetyan’s death, “It is ‘Nemets,’ Ruben Hayrapetyan.”
“The end of oligarchs has come, every one of us is Vahe Avetyan,” Davit Sanasaryan, a member of We Demand to Punish Those Guilty of What Happened at Harsnakar civic initiative, said, urging the protesters not to engage with the police officers. Calling the National Assembly a notorious institution, participants in the march demanded to deprive Ruben Hayrapetyan of his seat, “The incident with Vahe wouldn’t have happened, if the Republican Party with its criminal composition hadn’t decided on March 20 that ‘Nemets’ should be nominated for MP. Unfortunately, important institutions in our country have been covered with bad memories during the years of their existence,” added Davit Sanasaryan. Publicist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan said, “We will achieve that the Republican Party and its leadership are held responsible for spreading the culture of violence in Armenia.”
Then, the participants in the protest went along Mashtots Avenue toward the Armenian Attorney General’s Office, assessing it as a criminal institution, “That institution is also the reason why such unfairness rages in the country. We haven’t had law-abiding rulers so far, but when citizens run out of patience, they take the path of lynching.”
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Proceeding from A. Myasnikyan Memorial to the Government Building, the protesters urged the Embassies of France and Italy to the Republic of Armenia not to issue visas to Ruben Hayrapetyan, as the US Embassy to Armenia hasn’t recently.
The protest ended in front of the Government Building with chants like “Son of Serzh,” “Serzhik, the murderer,” “Shame on you.”
In the evening the protesters will visit Vahe Avetyan’s family to pay their last respects. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Anahit Bakhshyan, a participant in the rally and a member of the Heritage Party expressed hope that the society would put forward demands for taking radical and fundamental steps that would lead the country to the rule of law, “It is enough, this atmosphere of impunity has been around for 20 years. One should put an end to it until the wave of civil disobedience has been stirred up. The government can either raise its hands and say ‘we are sorry, people, we are leaving,’ or revise its attitude. I thought that the establishment would be the first to convey condolences and assess the actions of the oligarch’s bodyguards, but they are silent. I trust that they are sorry, but they haven’t made a legal assessment of the case.”
Louise SUKIASYAN