Armenian society starts own inquiry into massacre of Avetisyan family

The participants of the public hearing on the investigation into the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri have announced their intention to draft a plan of their own investigation.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 12, in Gyumri, six members of the Avetisyan family were assassinated. The only survivor of the attack – the six-month-old Sergey Avetisyan – was hospitalized in critical condition and on January 19, he died. A Russian regular soldier Valery Permyakov was arrested as a suspect of committing the massacre. He is kept under reinforced guard in the territory of the 102^nd Russian military base. According to the Investigating Committee (IC) of Armenia, Permyakov officially admitted the charges against him.

The hearing held on February 14 was attended by about 70 activists of NGOs and civil initiatives, both from Gyumri and Yerevan, and other regions of the country, including the Journalists' Club "Asparez", the Helsinki Civil Assembly of the city of Vanadzor, the human rights organization Transparency International, the Armenian Centre for Human Rights Protection named after Andrei Sakharov, the Union of Informed Citizens, the Civil Initiative "Join! Gyumri, you are not alone!", as well as lawyers, journalists from different media, rights defenders, and Zarui Postanjyan, an MP from the "Heritage" Party.

32 days have passed after the murder, but the authorities and law enforcement bodies provide no information to the public, where people could find answers to their questions, Levon Barsegyan, the head of the Gyumri journalists' club "Asparez", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on February 14.

According to Barsegyan, "the only thing that was announced to people about the case was the story about the water that Permyakov wanted to drink." According to investigators, Permyakov was walking in the city and came in to the Avetisyan family to ask for water; and when they refused, he opened fire.

Because of the absence of information on the case, the initiators of the public hearing had to start their own investigation with attraction of various experts, who will work in three specialized working groups, said Barsegyan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.