Society demands strictest punishment for Harsnaqar incident - papers

13:00 • 30.06.12

The Saturday newspapers have addressed the recent incident at the Harsnaqar restaurant, which resulted in the death of a military doctor.

Major Vahe Avetyan, who was the chief of the ENT Department at Yerevan’s Garrison Hospital, was severely beaten by the restaurant’s security guards last Monday. He was subsequently hospitalized and underwent a surgery, but doctors didn’t manage to save his life. Remaining unconscious for about a fortnight, he died on Friday evening.

It is noteworthy that Harsnaqar belongs to businessman MP Ruben Hayrapetyan (Republican Party of Armenia), who is the president of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA).

Condemning the incident, the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper expresses doubts that the crime will be ever resolved given that one of the men who beat the doctor is the tycoon politician’s personal bodyguard.

“And the major question whether this heinous crime will be fully resolved, with all the perpetrators being held accountable, or the liability measures will be restricted only to the those directly involved [in the scuffle] is becoming more sensitive now. It turned out recently, and the police officially confirmed that the most active perpetrator, Garik Martirosyan, is not a security guard at the restaurant; he is the personal bodyguard of MP Ruben Hayrapetyan. There are numerous video footages proving that Margaryan accompanies Hayrapetyan everywhere. And it is hard to believe that he hadn’t been with his boss that day. In all likelihood, the boss was either at the restaurant at the time of the scuffle or, knowing that a some people ‘do not behave themselves’, sent his bodyguard there to call the naughty customers to order. It is not difficult for the law-enforcers to find this out. All they need is just a couple of investigative procedures. In short, it is very easy to resolve this crime. If only there was a desire. It is exactly at this point that we come up with doubts, to say the least,” the paper says, noting that Hayrapetyan maintains very close ties with President Serzh Sargsyan.

Characterizing the perpetrators human-like beasts, Hraparak says in an editorial that they all, including their owner, must be punished in the strictest manner.

“Many people now bring up the topic, pretending as though Ruben Hayrapetyan, in whose establishment the incident occurred, has nothing to do with all that. His colleagues in the party seek to justify and defend him,” says the paper, adding that numerous other cases that went unpunished in the past, contributed to new acts of violence in the society.

Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun draws the reader’s attention to the fact that neither Hayrapetyan nor any of the inferior employees at the restaurant have been detained so far. According to the paper, the bodyguards who dared to raise hand against the doctor were sure from the outset that their boss would do his utmost to help them out.

The paper calls for stripping Hayarapetyan off mandate, discrediting him in public and closing his restaurant as a place considered a slaughterhouse. The paper claims that the recent incident was not the first fatal case in Harsnaqar.

“Ruben Hayrapetyan must be held accountable. He is responsible for the acts of his contract killers because a security guard normally follows only the boss’ commands,” the paper adds.

The Zhamanak newspaper considers the case yet another tragedy that the society suffers because of the criminal-oligarchic regime.

“There will be no end unless the society decides that it is really necessary to put an end to all this. When the tragic incident happened to Vahe Avetyan, many said that it is a matter of honor for the army and its officer and called upon the Ministry of Defense to follow all this and find those guilty. To be frank, however, that’s a matter of honor for the society. The society is required to follow that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” it says.

Avetyan's death was confirmed by the Defense Ministry. The scuffle had left him with a brain edema, with one hemisphere having turned to the other side. The guards at the restaurant had also beaten two other military doctors, Senior Lieutenant Garik Soghomonhyan, and Artak Badalyan.

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