On October 14, a 17-year-old gay boy jumped from the Kiev bridge in Yerevan. His identity is still kept secret.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated in the Investigative Committee under the article of suicide.
Police and patrols found his body under the Kiev bridge. It is known that, before the incident, the boy’s father called the police and reported that the boy left the house saying that he was going to kill himself.
Later, the boy’s friends gave interviews to the epress.am website, saying that the boy had a different appearance, that his father beat him, that they saw him in a bloody state several times, they regularly forced him to cut his hair, threw things away, and humiliated him.
Finally, the photos of the young man, accompanied by hateful comments, were spread on Telegram channels, which provoked a new conflict with the family.
Դեպքից մեկ օր հետո «Իրավունքի կողմ» ՀԿ նախագահ Լիլիթ Մարտիրոսյանը իր ֆեսբուքյան էջին գրել էր, թե լուրեր կան, որ տղան հոմոֆոբ ընտանիքի պատճառով է գնացել այդ քայլին։
A day after the incident, Lilit Martirosyan, the president of the “Right side” NGO, wrote on her Facebook page that there are rumors that the boy took that step because of his homophobic family.
Today, Hripsime Kizogyan, executive director of the “Pink” NGO confirmed in front of journalists that the cause of suicide was the boy’s sexual orientation and that the photos of the young man were spread on social networks with relevant posts and became available to the boy’s family members.
“Regarding his sexual orientation, there were publications on one of the social networks, the Telegram channel, where pictures of people are regularly published and people are targeted, showing that they do not correspond to traditional values, to the image of an Armenian,” she said.
It turns out that, after seeing those pictures and learning about their son’s sexual orientation, the parents threw him out of the house, and then, he was fired from his job. “The person, in fact, was left without any support, including from his parents. His friends said that he had a strained relationship with his parents, was depressed and, unfortunately, decided to commit suicide,” Hripsime Kizogyan said.
This was the third high-profile death of an LGBT person in a year.
Last year, on October 20, two young men jumped from the Davtashen bridge and died.
Before committing suicide, the boys published photos on the Instagram, in which they were kissing and showing off their wedding rings. They also wrote: “Happy End: We made the decisions about sharing the photos and our future actions together.”
Later, the photos were deleted from the Instagram pages. The parents of the boys denied the information about their sexual orientation. It also became known that one of the boys allegedly had a girlfriend. It seems that denying the boys’ sexual “wrong” orientation is considered more important than the fact that they no longer exist.
A few days after the incident, Lilit Martirosyan told Forrights.am that she had told in the presentation of that time, Ariana, like the transgender Ariadna, was her friend, that she had gone through a difficult road, sex change surgery. She wanted to be happy, but didn’t succeed.
“In the past few months, the investigation has not made a single step forward. The perpetrator of the murder is detained, but we fear that the crime was not committed by one person, but other people were involved. Her mother also thinks that this was not a matter of one person’s actions,” says Lilit Martirosyan.
She also knew the boy who jumped down the bridge. He had come to the office of the “Right Side” NGO” twice.
“The first time he came, he was in a depressed state. He talked with our lawyers and our staff members. He brought a cake for the second time. He said: I want to celebrate my birthday here, is it possible? He did not mention it to his family members. He told me that it is very good that we provide them with a space to come and talk; they cannot do it anywhere else. That was the last time I saw him. Then I found out that he committed suicide,” recalls Lilit Martirosyan.
She does not remember a single crime committed against LGBT people that was finally revealed. In such cases, as a rule, the law enforcement system patronizes criminals.
To remind, on the night of February 28, 2018, they tortured, strangled, burned and tried to kill transgender Jacqueline A. In this case, the perpetrator was not held responsible, because the investigator and the prosecutor were on the side of the criminal. The criminal was not even arrested. This case is in the European Court of Human Rights.
Syuzan Simonyan