By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
On May 20, a Lexus of Suren Khachatryan, the governor of the Syunik Province of Armenia, was attacked on the Kapan-Goris road. Khachatryan, his driver and assistant were in the car during the shooting. None of them were injured. A criminal case was initiated into attempted homicide and illegal possession of weapons.
Many observers have two theories about the incident: the governor staged the attack to change his image from a villain to a victim and draw public attention from his former conduct to the assassination attempt.
"I cannot imagine who would shoot at me, I have no suspect, I await a preliminary investigation," said Khachatryan. At the same time, he ruled out the staging theory: "Only the dregs of society think so, not one normal person thinks so."
When asked by journalists why not a single person in the car was injured, considering that 20 shells were found at the crime scene, Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan responded: "It is possible."
Another much publicized theory is a lynching, considering the impunity of the Syunik governor and his relatives.
Fights with use of firearms have been on the rise in Armenia in the last years, resulting in a higher rate of gunshot wounds. However, the case of the Syunik governor, who has already been on trial several times, whose life has some scandalous records, takes a special tone. A few years ago, the governor hit female businesswoman Silva Ambartsumyan in the face at the Marriott Hotel in Yerevan. The incident, despite Silva Ambartsumyan's interviews and a video recording from the hotel posted on the Internet, has not weakened Suren Khachatryan's positions.
In mid-2013, an even more outrageous story happened. As a result of a shooting preceded by a conflict, an ex-candidate for Goris mayor, Avetik Budagyan, was murdered in the yard of Khachatryan's house on June 2, 2013, his brother and commander of a military base, Colonel Artak Budagyan, was gravely wounded. Tigran Khachatryan, the governor's son, and Zarzand Nikogosyan, a bodyguard, were detained. Both were charged with murdering Avetik Budagyan. Soon after, the court released the couple and closed the case, ruling that T. Khachatryan and Z. Nikogosyan acted in self-defense. (author's note: lawyer Ayk Alumyan of Budagyan assures that some pages of the case, containing transcripts of telephone conversations of Suren Khachatryan, went missing. No one has been punished for the loss of the documents so far. However, under public duress, the government had to make a tough decision and dismiss the Syunik governor, stripping him of his immunity. Already in September 2014, the government took the unprecedented decision to let Suren Khachartyan become governor.
Just recently, S. Khachatryan and his son were involved in yet another scandalous story. In a fight organized by Tigran Khachatryan and 40 other people on his side a month ago, the brothers Arutyun and Musheg Zakaryan were gravely injured. The regional prosecutor's office of Syunik opened a criminal case on May 4 into hooliganism conducted by unidentified people. Only on the 10th day after the incident did an official of the Armenian Investigative Committee report that Suren Khachatryan's son Tigran was a witness in the case. After skipping interrogations, the young man finally appeared at the police station on May 16 and answered a few questions.
Many human rights activists point out the odd logic in the events. In particular, that the criminal case was opened into hooliganism, when one of the Zakaryan brothers lost sight in one of the eyes. The activists are also suspicious that the brothers are still not standing as victims in the case. It is somewhat queer that the police commented on the criminal case and the people involved only 10 days after the fight. Some analysts insist that the reluctance of the police in searching for the governor's son and the late arrival of Khachatryan Jr. to the police fits into the logic of past events.
'Law enforcers started searching for Khachatryan's son and other brawlers a week later. "Searched a little" and failed to find. Then, the backstage negotiations happened, and as a result of a political decision made at the very top, Tigran Khachatryan arrives at the police voluntarily," 7or.am columnist Koryun Manykyan expresses amazement. It is quite possible that the decision was political and made at the very top. The Syunik governor spent over 15 years providing the government with the desired vote results at all levels. Even in the failed referendum on the enlargement of rural councils, conducted on May 17 as part of a government pilot programme, Syunik Province achieved 'record' results, while the referendum was a complete flunk in other provinces. This is the factor where the following formula stems from: permissiveness in exchange for falsifications. It makes Suren Khachatryan and his relatives practically immune and untouchable.
Back to the second theory, it must be added that Tigran Karapetyan, an ex-candidate for Goris mayor, who has rather complicated relations with the governor, has been interrogated. According to some media, the father of the Zakaryan brothers may be questioned too. After the beating of his sons, the faher warned that 'they will not get away with that', referring to the Syunik governor, some media mention the Budagyans and so on.
Yet the problem is not in possible score-setting or the staging of an assassination attempt, the problem is that both theories prove that Armenia is blanketed in an atmosphere of impunity and permissiveness and functionaries who are above the law regardless of the plight. Both theories, and the whole cascade of events following them, are a serious blow to the already morally and psychologically complicated atmosphere in the country, where any detective story is a reflection of permissiveness, impunity and selective amenability.
