Yesterday the trial court of the Nork Marash administrative districts, granting a motion to the National Security Service (NSS), issued an arrest warrant against Vardan Sedrakyan who will be detained for two months. www.aravot.am tried to find out during a conversation with representatives of different fields of activity how they would describe the fact of taking into custody a former candidate for president. Aram Harutyunyan, another candidate for president, stated that he was 99% sure that V. Sedrakyan had nothing to do with that assassination attempt and went into detail: “I cannot think of a motive that Vardan Sedrakyan had to have to do such a thing. I don’t think it is logical in Vardan’s case. He hadn’t even known Hayrikyan before that; anyway, it is incomprehensible. I don’t think that Sedrakyan had anything to do with that, I am even sure of that. Those two persons who are being connected with Vardan were sort of taken aback, didn’t look like assassins. On the other hand, Vardan would say during the whole campaign that he had already won, his campaign aimed at showing that he had 81 percent of votes; therefore, doing such a thing was by no means in Vardan’s interests.” A. Harutyunyan drew attention to the fact that Hayrikyan was neglected and forgotten these days, then he noted: “He got angry, it means that he is insulted; that is why he gives such assessments. It is incomprehensible that after the assassination attempt on Hayrikyan, he would be shown on TV 24/7, and now he is forgotten and neglected. If one has escaped an assassination attempt, he does not deserve such treatment.” Vardan Harutyunyan, a human rights advocate and the head of the Rights and Freedom Center NGO, in his turn, offered to wait a little, then make assessments. The human rights advocate said: “There are suspicions, nothing more. If he has anything to do with the case, firstly, it is regrettable, and if he is connected with the case, he must be arrested. The preliminary investigation body hasn’t made any statement, besides the ones about the arrests. Therefore, it is too early to express a dissenting opinion. As for what happened to Paruyr Hayrikyan, it is deplorable and regrettable. And until the crime is completely solved, there may be manifold motives.” Armen Martirosyan, the deputy leader of the Heritage Party, stated in response to our question that “more important processes are under way in the country than Vardan Sedrakyan’s arrest.” When asked whether he didn’t treat the fact of Sedrakyan’s arrest seriously, Mr. Martirosyan said: “I treat it seriously; I don’t think that the NSS takes unserious actions. I am not talking about that, but I want to say that more important processes are under way in the country than the arrest. This may even be another attempt to distract society, which is secondary for me anyway. Our citizens have already elected the fourth president, Raffi Hovhannisyan, and they struggle to have their rights, including the right to vote, protected. This popular struggle is more important than whether Vardan Sedrakyan has been arrested or not. Like the assassination attempt on
Hayrikyan, which they tried to use to distract society from the tide of trust in Raffi Hovhannisyan, but were fortunately unsuccessful, this may also be one of those attempts. Naturally, I don’t think that the opposition has arrested Vardan Sedrakyan, although the NSS may have all the evidence and arrest without any political motives. Surely both can be the case too.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
