Five years have passed since the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, but the answers to many questions have remained unsolved for a lot of people. Why was this entire family killed, even the children? Who murdered them- Valery Permyakov, or did someone else do it? If Valery Permyakov was the one who orchestrated the murder, did he act alone?
A political analyst from Gyumri, Gagik Hambaryan, told Aravot Daily, “Since the beginning, many people, including myself, believed that this murder will never be solved. Unfortunately, our predictions came true. And even worse, as we predicted, when society’s attention moved away from the murder of the Avetisyan family and they began to focus on other problems and the tense situation lightened up, Permyakov was extradited to Russia. Our society did not find out the answers to specific questions over the past five years, such as who orchestrated the murder and why and other related questions, including whether or not Permyakov acted alone and if he even did it at all. I doubt that Permyakov acted alone or that he did it to begin with because we did not receive the answers to many questions. Now we do not have any information. Which prison is he carrying out his sentence at in Russia? Is he even carrying out his sentence? Society did not get answers to any of these questions. And the fear that this unpunished crime can repeat itself in a more severe way did not go away.”
Political analyst Gagik Hambaryan, however, has a question to ask the current authorities and political forces supporting the authorities.
“NGOs and activists were writing almost every hour in the days following the murder of the Avetisyan family criticizing the former authorities of Armenia. Although, I must note that their criticism was justified and objective. They were demanding a fair trial and they demanded that the Armenian authorities not extradite Permyakov to Russia. But now, I have a question. It is already the second year that Pashinyan’s team is in power in Armenia. Why have the same political activists and politicians who were speaking about Permyakov’s crime and its consequences with the former authorities silent now? What is the reason? Nothing changed. Permyakov is in Russia. The current authorities, as far as I understood, want this murder to simply become a part of history. They are not discussing this issue. For example, we have seen how often they talk about October 27th and they want to solve the incident that happened on March 1st. It is interesting that the people who were extremely active at one point, making posts and giving press conferences every day, are now silent. Why are they staying quiet? What is the reason? What changed? Nothing changed. The situation even got worse because we don’t even know where Permyakov is. We also don’t know if he’s carrying out his sentence or not. As a citizen of Armenia, this is what I want to know,” Gagik Hambaryan said.
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