Vardan Harutyunyan, the head of the Rights and Freedom Center NGO says about Ruben Hayrapetyan’s resignation.
– Has Ruben Hayrapetyan made amends with his resignation alone? Someone has called for selling the restaurant and giving the money to Vahe Avetyan’s family. Will he do so?
– The important thing is not financial compensation, although it is also very important and necessary. And certainly, one cannot make amends with resignation. The resignation was just a compelled move, which was made not by Ruben Hayrapetyan, but by Serzh Sargsyan. The fault is very big and too grievous to be redeemed with an MP office. I don’t know who wrote the text of Ruben Hayrapetyan’s resignation, but one tried to stress the grievousness and seriousness of the fault. One shouldn’t understand only the murder by saying “the fault.” The members of Vahe Avetyan’s family – his wife and underage children – should be in the spotlight. The fault has been committed against these very children; these children will grow up without their father, the future of these children and their mother has been distorted and their peace has been disturbed. And I cannot imagine what can console them. Surely, neither an MP office nor weepy public statements. There are faults that can be redeemed or make amends for this way or another and to a certain extent, but there is a fault, the redemption of which is beyond the human’s imagination. Perhaps this is the reason why, while classifying sins characteristic of human nature, they call a part of them mortal sins. I think murder, orphaning an innocent child, is a mortal sin.
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– Generally what the analyses of the incident at Harsnakar and the tragic events that have taken place in regard to that testify to? What influence the civil society in Armenia can have on the processes?
– This tragedy shows that there is a civil society in Armenia and that what was possible to do a few years ago without being punished is not possible today. This is a very important fact. The existence of a civil society can change many things in the life of our country. As for the incident itself, I think that it will not be novel, if I say that this is a result of impunity. It is not a secret that there have been people in Armenia who have been convinced for many years that they are above the law and have been guided by the motto “no one can stop us.” They are convinced that they have earned that right. At a certain point, the government involved them, these so-called oligarchs, in politics, in order to strengthen its power. They started to use them and the illegal armed groups formed by them in election processes – while breaking up opposition rallies, using violence against oppositionists. Their importance reached its climax and was demonstrated most vividly during the 2008 presidential election and after it. Today the government of the Republic of Armenia first of all relies on these oligarchs. This is the reason why Serzh Sargsyan had stated many times before the parliamentary election that the future parliament would be a political one and businessmen would not be included in it, but when it came to the election, he couldn’t cross out oligarchs, because he understood that he would have no bearing without them given the complete absence of popular support. The right to act unpunished and to be above the law has been granted to them in return for important
services. They didn’t take into account one thing, time. Times have changed, there is a civil society, there is internet, social networks and what is more important, the youth of the 21st century. These last factors I have mentioned are the reason why Vahe Avetyan’s murder is not like Poghos Poghosyan’s murder, which the government was able to conceal without much effort.
– What impression the attitude of the political forces toward these stories has made? Haven’t you noticed attempts to turn that tragedy into a political show, I mean the activity of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), in particular?
– I haven’t seen an attempt to turn the tragedy into a political show. I have watched very closely and I have noticed only pain clearly expressed by everyone. Everyone just expresses that pain specifically – someone curses, someone else keeps silent, the other one makes noise. The ANC and other political forces are also a part – and one of the most active parts – of the civil society I have mentioned and it is natural that the ANC should respond and it responded. One should be happy that other political forces have also responded and condemned. If there hadn’t been these responses, this result wouldn’t have been there. By saying “this result,” I don’t mean the resignation from the parliament, but the arrests of direct participants in the incident and the existing social supervision over the investigation, which, regardless of the government’s will, exists and is real. If it goes on like this, one will be able to make more tangible achievements.
Interviewed NELLY GRIGORYAN
