The relatives of the killed serviceman Arthur Ajamyan were rallying in the second protest today.
Last time they were near the National Assembly building, where they met with deputies and heard promises from them to expose Arthur’s death case speedily. This time they had come to the government building to meet the Prime Minister.
The Yezidi boy’s relatives were not alone here. Among the crowd were also the parents of other murdered soldiers who have been coming here for years. With each new government, they receive promises from officials that their child’s murder will be revealed, so they meet with government leaders and ministers. But the hope and joy of the facts that the high-ranking official is now receiving them, is waning, and people still remain deceived. And again, and again they come to the Republic Square to support another rebel. So was the case this time.
After a few hours of making noise, clashing with police, loud threats about closing roads, etc., the Yezidi soldier Artur Ajamyan’s relatives were received by Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
To remind, soldier Arthur Ajamyan, who was serving in the army for 11 months, was killed on December 2—on his birthday. As a result of the same incident, serviceman David Melikbekyan was injured and is in the intensive care unit with severe head injury. The Investigative Committee is investigating an attempted murder of two or more persons under Article 34-104 (2) (1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The lawyer of the injured party had stated that the serviceman’s body had various traces of violence on the forehead, hands and feet areas.
Prime Minister Pashinyan, who received Ajamyan’s family members, did not call on the defense minister to ask questions in the presence of the victim, and did not call the military prosecutor. Nikol Pashinyan, as commander-in-chief of the army, could only ask one question to the military prosecutor why there were traces of violence on Arthur Ajamyan’s body if the boy has died from a gunshot. And to the minister, he could have asked if he had studied why the boy had been subjected to violence in the military unit in Martakert where he was serving, could have asked him whether he had accepted Ajamyan’s family members who were regularly protesting.
Pashinyan apologized: “I would like to officially apologize for we have not been able to resolve the issue you have raised so far so that we were not facing this situation today,” he said. When the grandfather of the victim said that the investigators do not disclose any information, the prime minister promised to instruct to provide information on the preliminary investigation data to the victim’s family, of course, if it does not harm the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation.
The parents of the victim and their lawyer went out trusting in the prime minister, and the rally was dispersed.
We asked Ruben Martirosyan, a human rights activist, criminal lawyer, representing many criminal cases, who once worked in the staff of Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, how he assesses Pashinyan’s meeting and his conduct.
“I am fascinated by the unity of the Yezidi people: they have come against the corrupt system of the Prosecutor’s Office-Investigative Committee operating in Armenia. Firstly. And, secondly, the Prime Minister is probably unaware of the laws of the European Court. The European Court has rulings specifically for the aggrieved party. These judgments clearly state that the investigating body has to provide the aggrieved party with as much materials as is necessary for the aggrieved party to perform its functions. In fact, the criminal investigative body has created a false theory, a term called preliminary investigative secret, by which they wish to keep the aggrieved party away from the circumstances of the case so that the aggrieved party cannot perform its functions.”
According to Martirosyan, this, as well as many other cases from his practice, testify that the terms of the Prosecutor General and the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia should be put in quotes. “It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister, pretending to be naive, does not see what is going on in this system. He, who has worked as a journalist and editor for many years and many such cases have gone through him, cannot not know this; he demonstrates official inactivity, helping the investigative committee chairman and the military prosecution to continue to conceal crimes,” the human rights activist states.
Asked what he would do if he were the Prime Minister, when people were angry and demanded justice, Martirosyan answered:
“On the same position of the RA Defense Minister and Prime Minister once has been Vazgen Sargsyan, and when he was presented with substantiated facts and evidence that the structure was corrupt, Vazgen Sargsyan fired all the prosecutors and heads of investigative bodies.”
He reminded that he had repeatedly appealed to the Prime Minister reporting information on Davit Dumikyan, who was accused of the death of the serviceman Grigor Avetisyan, but was innocent, but, in fact, he had received no response.
Syuzan Simonyan