Gyumri slaughter: Official silence a month later (video)
I cannot imagine how the Investigation Committee of the Republic of Armenia is going to investigate the murder of the seven-member Avetisyan family in Gyumri if the main suspect has not been handed over to the Armenian side, says Artur Sakunts, Head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office. “We still do not know the motives behind this hideous crime. It is equally important to understand why the murderer chose the Avetisyan family,” he said. Today a public discussion was organized in Gyumri on the appalling murder of the Avetisyan family. The event was attended by 60 people. A month has passed since the murder but the law enforcement agencies have failed to provide reliable information on the tragedy,” says Levon Barseghyan, chairman of Asparez Journalists' Club in Gyumri. The Daniel Ionnisyan, Coordinator of the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, says, “Many details are kept confidential though the investigation was supposed to be transparent. The National Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office have not given their replies yet.” Three working groups were set up during the first public discussion which later submitted the results of their work. The groups involve journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, who wall develop and coordinate tactions aimed at solving the crime and preventing its repetition in the future. The working groups stress that today Armenia is facing serious problems in view of security. Six members of the Avetisyan family, including a two-year-old child, were shot dead in their house in Gyumri in the morning of January 12. A six-month-old baby, Seryozha Avetisyan, was hospitalized with stab wounds. He died in hospital a week later. The main suspect of the crime, Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of Russian Military Base N 102 stationed in Gyumri, was detained by Russian border guards late in the same day while attempting to cross the Armenian-Turkish border near Yerazgavors village in Armenia’s Shirak province. The murder of the seven-member family sparked violent protests in Gyumri and Yerevan, with people demanding that Permyakov be handed over to Armenian authorities and to stand trial by the Armenian law.
