Derenik Papyan on the left, Arthur Mkrtumyan on the right
Months ago, the aggrieved party in the case contacted Forrights regarding the article titled “I have no reason to remain silent, it’s just these people do not care at all: they will not pay attention until one does not harm himself.”
Gohar Papyan, the sister of murdered Derenik Papyan, said during a telephone conversation with us that the incident that took place five years ago is still a big scar for the family and bringing up it again, especially by the accused, is much more harder.
It should be reminded that on September 18, 2015, at around 10:00 pm, being offended by the fact of being beaten and cursed, Artur Mkrtumyan opened fire on Derenik Papyan, a resident of the same village, with a shotgun: Derenik Papyan died from gunshot wounds. Papyan was the military commissar of Shamshadin in Tavush region.
“My brother was a hero, a participant in wars and defensive battles in Tavush. He has several medals and orders, he is the honor of the village, one of our heroes. He didn’t fall from the enemy shots in order to die from a fellow villager’s shot? He was 49 years old, had two children, and didn’t even have time to see his grandson,” Gohar said, her voice trembling beyond the phone.
According to the sister, on the day of the incident, around 9:30 in the evening, when she was talking to her mother, Derenik was still at home. It was later that he was called out and asked to “calm down drunken Arthur.”
“People in the village used to say that, when sober, Arthur is a good person, but when he drinks, he becomes uncontrollable. They were not close, they were just ordinary co-villagers, both working in the same system. Dero went to not allow Arthur to disturb the peace in the village, but he went and did not come back anymore.”
Mkrtumyan did not accept the accusation from the very first moment, he regularly mentioned that he had nothing to do with the incident. The examination did not even show that Papyan died from a shot fired by Mkrtumyan. Arthur’s fingerprints were missing from the body.
Gohar finds this circumstance surprising. According to her, there are facts in the case that are dark even for them.
“We too would like all the doubts of our family to be dispelled. For example, during the examination, Arthur’s fingerprints were not found on the weapon. Allegedly, there was blood on the weapon, that’s why the fingerprints were not fixed. I asked an independent expert and he said that it is not possible, blood cannot be an obstacle to take fingerprints and it cannot clean the fingerprints. Besides, no search of Artur’s house took place, which, in my opinion, was a very important circumstance. In a word, the preliminary investigation is generally defective,” says Gohar Papyan.
She does not rule out the possibility that other people may be behind all this. According to Gohar, it is possible that Arthur was just a tool in the hands of those people.
“If there is such a thing, let him say it: we too do not want an innocent person to be convicted, but since he did not say, and witnesses also are against him, then 11 years then 14 years verdict of that court is not enough, Arthur has to be punished more severely: he has killed a hero.”
Roza Vardanyan