by Arpi Bekaryan
When the tragedy happened, the couple was alone in a fancy two-story house located in the newly developed G1 district of Yerevan.
Arshak Arshakyan and Haykanush Keyvanyan had been married since 2010. They had two children – twin boys, who are now 8 years old.
Haykanush Keyvanyan was unconscious when she was taken by ambulance to a hospital at 18:30 on March 3, 2017. According to the Armenian government’s Judicial Information System, the couple had been fighting since 14:00, when Haykanush Keyvanyan decided to go shopping with her friend and her husband didn’t allow it.
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In his court testimony, he confessed slapping his wife on the face and head several times, pulling her hair, and hitting her slightly on her backside, after which his wife started packing to go to her parents’ house.
Arshakyan said he was in the kitchen when he heard a voice and then the sound of something falling. According to his testimony, he went to see what happened, and saw his wife laying on the basement floor, bleeding and unconscious. He said he poured water on her face to try to bring her back to consciousness. He said he carried her up to the first floor and called the ambulance.
A look down the basement, where Haykanush was found unconscious
Keyvanyan died in the hospital four days later, without ever regaining consciousness.
A case was launched based on Article 110 of the Criminal Code (incitement to suicide, with maximum sentence of three years). On March 20, 2018, the charge was changed to Article 104 (intentional killing, sentence of 8-15 years). Arshakyan is accused of injuring her vital organs and then dropping her two stories to the basement, causing her death.
Now he’s in jail while his case continues. The next hearing is April 4.
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A glance to the house the couple was living in
The couple lived with Arshakyan’s parents. His mother, Raya Arshakyan, cried throughout an interview, which was conducted on March 3, 2019, the second anniversary of the fatal fight.
She thinks if her son really killed Haykanush, he would have run away: “He was free for one year after her death. He could have sold his car and run, but he sold his car and made a grave for his wife.”
She claims the couple was very much in love and was planning to have a third child. “They did not have any needs,” she says. “They had everything. They were living in this big house.”
Arshakyan worked in Moscow in the summers, helping his father. “Haykanush also came to Moscow several times. But she didn’t want to stay. She didn’t want the children to go to school in Moscow,” his father said.
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Arshakyan’s family lived in the same neighborhood as the victim’s grandparents when she was a child. “Haykushik was four years old when I saw her,” his mother remembers. “I told her grandma I will take her for my Arshak. Many years later my other son saw Haykushik and told his brother how beautiful she had become. Then Arshak figured out a way to meet her.”
She said Arshak was strict. “I will not lie just because he is my son. He made me angry with his attitude.”
But his mother claims his wife liked it. “She would say ‘look at that man, who doesn’t care where his wife goes. What kind of a man is that?’ “She says the victim would call her husband in Moscow and ask permission to go anywhere.”
However, Arshak’s mother said the victim was also very jealous: “Once they had a fight, and he told her he had an affair. I heard them, went upstairs, and saw she was going to drink bleach.
“I took it from her hands. I got angry with her. I said to her: ‘what man doesn’t have an affair?’ ”
Keyvanyan on Arshakyan’s sister’s wedding. (Photo from family archive)
If I knew he was beating my daughter, it would not have happened,” Haykanush’s father, Grigor Keyvanyan said. “I would have taken her out of that home.” Her mother said the victim never told her about any violence.
The relationship between the two families is poor. Arshakyan said his in-laws lied in court, so he quit letting them see their grandsons.
Goharik Davtyan, the victim’s mother, said at the beginning they did not think it was possible that Arshak could have killed their daughter.
“We kept good communication with him after her death, until the investigation showed something else,” she said. Six months after the death, he came to their house with some papers for them to sign.
“He said he had to go abroad and work, and we should take care of the children. I told him I wanted the truth. I wanted to know how my daughter died.”
The victim’s parents haven’t seen their grandchildren for several months. “They say their father tells them it’s our fault that he is now in jail,” their grandmother says. “I only think about them, or I would push open the door and tell them the truth. But I don’t want them to have any traumas.”
The twin boys now stay with their father’s parents in the same house. Their aunt came to take them to English class. “It was their mother’s dream that they study English very well. We are trying to fulfill her dream,” Raya Arshakyan said.
The victim worked as an English teacher before the twins were born. According to her father-in-law, she graduated from Brusov University of Languages and Social Sciences “with highest grades”.
Her mother-in-law said she will not let the boys forget their mother. “I am talking to them about their mom every day,” she said. “The psychologist told us the best thing to do is tell the truth. We say their mother fell down some stairs and died. We didn’t tell them it happened in this house.”
She said one of the twins was very close to his mother. “He had to see her every minute. He is now meeting with the school psychologist from time to time to get better.”
She said their father looked after the boys alone for the first three months after their mother’s death. “He was feeding them, dressing them, ironing their clothes.
“Of course they don’t know why he is in jail now. We told them he had a fight with someone.”
“They have everything, but not parents by their side. Children become orphans when their mother dies, not their father.”
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Investigator Vazgen Mamikonyan didn’t want to talk about the case while the trial is still continuing.
Defense lawyer Hrant Ananyan argued for the trial to be held behind closed doors. Journalists could not attend. Ananyan said witnesses are talking about the couple’s personal life. “It is psychologically very hard for my client, so he asked me to do this.”
Closed Trial on March 1
Artsrun Badalyan, the lawyer for the victim’s family, disagreed: “This kind of case should have an open trial.”
Judge David Harutyunyan decided the trial should be closed only for the testimonies that concern the couple’s personal life.
Badalyan told the victim wanted to get divorced. “She went to her parents’ house twice,” the lawyer said. The first time Arshakyan’s parents and sister convinced her to go back. The second time Arshakyan himself convinced her.
“You see what happened when she wanted to go for the third time.”
According to the government Judicial Information System, Arshakyan was also charged with drug possession, but that charge was later dropped.
“The house was searched twice and drugs were found,” said the victim’s lawyer Badalyan. But there was a change in law to his favor. The minimum amount of drugs allowed by law was increased. So that charge was dropped.”
Badalyan said both Arshakyan and his lawyer wanted a trial session on March 7, the anniversary of the death.
“He claims he loved her very much. But he didn’t even remember the day of his wife’s death.”
