A part of the recording of a telephone conversation between two Artsakh residents in the Artsakh dialect has appeared on the Internet. The RA Investigative Committee and the Public TV Company operating with the funds of the state budget present how men from Artsakh are talking about distributing money to some people for participating in the opposition protests, smaller amounts they got compared to other participants. During the conversation, one of the parties to the phone call says about doing something for two thousand drams and mentions that he used to do the same thing for 40 thousand drams. The first channel presented this as the price of participating in the rallies with that amount, but those who know the Artsakh dialect are rebutting.
“That part specifically refers to a very painful question that one says to another: “Yesterday I bought shoes for 2,200 drams, when did I wear shoes for less than 40,000 drams?” That’s all. And they translated that “yesterday he gave me 2,200 drams, when did I agree to do something like that for less than 40 thousand drams, etc.,” said Ruben Melikyan, former MP of Artsakh.
After this recording, it became known that Narek Tevosyan, forcibly displaced from Artsakh to RA, was detained for a month. He is 29 years old, the father of three minor children, from Vank village of Artsakh.
Forrights.am spoke with Narek Tevosyan’s wife, Susanna Makyan. She claims that her husband is being slandered.
“They put a fake occusation on him; they do what they want to do. I don’t know who my husband was talking to, but Narek said that no matter what we do, we participate in that demonstration with complete sincerity, I have never worn shoes less than 40 thousand drams in my life, now I wear shoes worth two thousand drams. I don’t know who made that tape, but they translated [from the NK dialect] and presented it to the public in the way they wanted,” she said.
According to Susanna, Narek Tevosyan was taken into custody from his home on the morning of June 5. The woman presents this scene of how, according to her, the law enforcement officers broke into the apartment and took her husband away. She warns about gross violations of human rights.
“For us, we were sitting in a quiet house, there was a knock on the door early in the morning, at 8:10, there were seven people in police uniforms. My mother-in-law opened the door. They said tha they were from the police and had to search the house, and ordered us to come out. My mother-in-law said: yes, there is no problem, let’s just get dressed. They say: you cannot get dressed, come out in your nightgowns, we have to search. My baby was in fever, my sister-in-law was pregnant, and we got out in nightgowns as we were. They took our phones away, I had left my phone in the room, otherwise they would have taken it too. My mother-in-law had 10,000 drams in her bag, and they took it away. There were some change in hildren’s bags and they took it away and said you mom has fake 20,000 dram bills.” Susanna said in a conversation with Forrights.am.
11 people live in this family. Narek with his wife, children, mother, brothers and their families. Susanna told Forrights.am that even before Narek was taken into custody, they were targeted. According to her, unknown people always followed them and tried to take her husband’s brothers by force.
“A few days before this incident, my husband’s brother was entering the house after one in the morning, his pregnant wife was opening the door to welcome him, but at that moment, several persons in civilian clothes kidnapped him, in front of his wife, from the doorway. There were four people: two of them held his one arm, the other two the other arm and they dragged him towards the car. When my brother-in-law was taken to the car, his wife screamed, Grisha is taken away. My mother-in-law ran to the car. They told her that it is from the investigative committee, they wanted to speak to him. They wanted to take him, but my mother-in-law didn’t let them. They came after Gevorg but they confuse and were taking Grisha Gevorg is my other brother-in-law. Two days after that, we noticed that there were many people around the house, monitoring us. There were about six or seven people,” said Susanna.
Narek’s mother, Tamara Gevorgyan, said that they will not be able to stop their struggle by imprisoning her son, and that she is going to participate in the upcoming rally instead of her son.
Forrights.am sent written requests to the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding Sussanna Makyan’s claims. We will look at the topic after receiving answers.
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".