David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
A shootout took place near the house of the Syunik Region’s governor, Suren Khachatryan, in the south of Armenia on June 2nd. As a result one person was killed, the other fall into a coma in hospital, the third one was injured.
One side of the fire-fight included the former candidate to mayor of the city of Goris, Avetik Budagyan, and his brother, a commander of a military unite, Colonel Artak Budagyan; another side consisted of the governor’s son Tigran Khachatryan and bodyguards of his father.
The conflict began at a festive dinner where Suren Khachatryan and the brothers Budagyan were present. They had tense relations because Khachatryan didn’t want Avetik Budagyan to be a candidate to the mayor position. At the dinner the governor publicly insulted the brothers, after that they decided to sort things out near Khachatryan’s house, using guns. By the way, the governor told the investigation that he knew nothing about the shootout because “he was sleeping tightly” at home.
To figure it out, we should look at the personality of the governor who got a whole region for management. Having a prior conviction, Khachatryan has many times got into scandals, but due to the support of top authorities he has always managed to avoid responsibility.
A couple of years ago the Special Investigation Service of Armenia initiated a criminal case against Khachatryan, when he publicly hit businesswoman Silva Ambartsumyan for she demanded return her money which the governor lent for buying an equipment for the mining and concentrating complex – several thousand dollars. However, the investigation found no evidence against him and as always Khachatryan avoided responsibility.
There were four criminal cases initiated against the governor and his brothers. The whole region feared him and few dared to oppose the criminal governor. Nevertheless, this time the situation has changed because the population seems to be over Khachatryan’s permissiveness. Residents of Syunik wrote a letter to President Serge Sargsyan and demanded immediate dismissal of the governor-cutthroat.
The reaction of top officials confirmed that the situation had changed. They decided to deal with Khachatryan seriously. A criminal case was initiated over the shootout by the investigation service of the Internal Ministry of Armenia. The court delivered a sanction for a two-month arrest of Khachatryan’s son and one of his guards, Zarzabd Nikogosyan. After this, the government of Armenia made a decision to dismiss Khachatryan from the position of the governor.
The press secretary of the President promised the population that “the investigation will be independent and detailed; fair legal evaluation will be given to behavior of all people involved in the incident.” Khachatryan fell and everybody began to criticize him heavily.
Considering the “rich” biography of Khachatryan, it appears that his former sponsors are interested in his dismissal now. In the context of criminal rules accepted in the so-called political elite, the campaign against Khachatryan and his resignation surprise us because Khachatryan has always been a guarantee for victory of RPA’s candidates in all elections in Syunik. Probably, Kachatryan appeared to be useless or almost useless for President, considering the fact Sargsyan is being President for his last term. Today the authorities need a whipping boy, and they have found him in Khachatryan.
