A string of recent high-profile crimes in the country, ‘unmasking’ certain politicians, better known to public as “neighborhood authorities or oligarchs”, are the results of a postwar syndrome, representatives of Armenian intelligentsia think.
Director of puppet theatre, film director Ruben Babayan says in reference to the weekend gunshots fired in the vicinity of Syunik governor Suren Khachatryan’s mansion, leaving former Goris mayoral candidate Avetik Bughadyan dead, while his brother Artak Bughadyan, commander at a military unit in Nagorno Karabakh, along with one of Khachatryan’s bodyguards got heavily wounded and hospitalized: “Both very decent people and criminals enjoying killing people take part in the war, then both return back to normal life. I believe it is obvious which category the governor of Syunik belongs to”. (The reference is to the Nagorno Karabakh war, 1992-1994, and Suren Khachatryan’s participation in it.)
Drawing parallels between the Goris incident and the “Harsnakar affair”, he says one is the logical continuation of the other. To remind, last summer former people believed to be MP Ruben Hayrapetyan’s bodyguards beat to death young military doctor, army officer Vahe Avetyan at the Harsnakar restaurant complex belonging to the Hayrapetyan family.
Composer, songwriter Vahan Artsruni is convinced that a crisis has begun among the ruling top brass, and all methods are good to keep the reign.
Criminologist Sergey Galoyan recalls the April 23 shooting incident in Gyumri, with its former mayor Vardan Ghukasyan’s son and nephew as accomplices: Artyom Karapetyan was killed, Harutyun Khachatryan was wounded and hospitalized.
“Where is the honor and dignity of the police? Why won’t they solve these crimes?” asks Galoyan.
After the Gyumri incident, chief of police Vladimir Gasparyan said no longer issues would be solved by bloodshed in the country. Now he insists that if “certain blockheads don’t get it, they will”. Meanwhile, the Goris incident appears to prove the opposite.
Heritage faction member Zaruhi Postanjyan wrote on her Facebook page: “Almost a year has passed since Vahe Avetyan’s murder, and now again an officer of the armed forces is killed and again a high-ranking official is involved; what an unfair and brutal reality! Almost every week we hear about a death of a conscript, feel deep regret for their lost lives. We are witnesses of not simply impunity of high-ranking officials guilty of murder, but also their encouragement with state awards. The chief employer and sponsor of the high-ranking officials committing crimes, which have become a common thing, is [President] Serzh Sargsyan.”
Babayan believes people in Armenia come to power not to draft laws, but to find ways to bypass them.
“Armenia is founded on the basis of criminals rather than qualified professionals. The political fight has started from within, among themselves [the criminal elite]. The criminal world has started destroying itself, guided by the mafia rules,” says the film director with conviction.
No comments:
Post a Comment