One day ago, Nerses Nazaryan, Yerevan’s chief of police, was dismissed and Colonel Ashot Karapetyan, the head of the Police General Department of Criminal Investigation, was appointed to the office instead of him. The press interpreted the dismissal of the Yerevan police chief as being related to the events of April 9 and stated that N. Nazaryan had wanted to take radical steps, because of which Chief of Police Vova Gasparyan had stood by Raffi Hovhannisyan. As if the dismissal of the Yerevan police chief was the beginning of reforms in the police system.
However, www.aravot.am found out during a conversation with human rights advocates that there was no such intention and that version was groundless. Human rights advocate Artak Zeynalyan said in this regard: “It is absolutely inessential what versions there are, whether they correspond to the reality or not. It is important what the real reason for the dismissal is, whether it is a punishment, what it is. However, nothing like that has been stated, so what is formally stated is the reality. His dismissal has nothing to do with the events of April 9. The reason for the dismissal is not clear to me. If it had been related to those events, there would have been an investigation, a decision, by which he would have been held accountable. However, there is no such thing; therefore, no one has been held accountable for the events of April 9. And the procedure that exists in the police doesn’t prevent the same attitude and actions in the future in any way; that is why there should be a criminal investigation.” As to the assumptions that it had been no accident that Vova Gasparyan had stood by Raffi Hovhannisyan and that N. Nazaryan had been inclined to take radical steps, Mr. Zeynalyan said: “Those are rumors or just speculation.” Vardan Harutyunyan, a human rights advocate and the manager of the Rights and Freedom Center, doesn’t link N. Nazaryan’s dismissal with April 9 either. He added: “I don’t have information as to who is replaced for what. I don’t think that any police official can take actions on his own. All their actions, plans are elaborated at 26 Baghramyan Street, and the police just carry them out. They are all guided by one plan. As to whom they dismiss, it is their own back room, their explanations and
struggles; frankly speaking, I don’t even want to go into it.” Let us mention that after our conversation with human rights advocates, the police released a statement, which stated regarding Nerses Nazaryan’s dismissal: “It is just good business and is fully in line with the logic of reforms and personnel policy of the police. It is important for the police to rule out the combination of service and entrepreneurship, as it were, the merger with certain social strata, which is unavoidable in case of working in one place for a long time and has a negative impact on the operational situation and results of official activities. In this case, our research shows that the efficiency of the Yerevan city garrison’s work has reduced, which is unacceptable; one should take immediate measures to fix the situation.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
