Investigators of a brutal Yerevan murder that sparked a popular outcry against Armenia's oligarchs have reduced the incident to merely an argument over fashion sense gone badly wrong.
As Armenian police tell it, the June 29 death of military doctor Vahe Avetian was all about a restaurant taking its dress code very seriously . . . unlike the lives of its customers, apparently. The police alleged that a waiter, David Adamian, bickered with Avetian over his clothes until the two took it outside, where restaurant security beat the doctor and his friends up; in Avetian’s case, the beating led to his death, 12 days later. End of story.
The police account makes no mention of the restaurant owner, multi-millionaire businessman Ruben Hayrapetian, who claims he's in as much shock over what happened as anybody. The prosecutor’s office refused a request by the Avetian family to consider Hayrapetian, a onetime parliamentarian for President Serzh Sargysan's Republican Party of Armenia, as a suspect. Hayrapetian surrendered his seat in parliament after Avetian's death.
But what’s mainly missing in the police account is the big picture. For rights activists and many ordinary Armenians, the incident was not just about one man’s death, but a wakeup call about the ways things are done in the country.
After Avetian's death, many Armenians rallied against what they described as a tradition of allowing thuggish businessmen and their glazed-eyed bodyguards to run rampant.
Amidst a growing public outcry against cozy ties between Armenia's government and business elite, Armenian police on Tuesday claimed that Armenian Football Federation boss Ruben Hayrapetian was not at his Yerevan restaurant Harsnakar when 33-year-old army doctor Vahe Avetian met with a beating there on June 17 that cost him his life.
Criminal Investigations Inspectorate official Arsen Ayvavsian claimed that Hayrapetian, who was interrogated last week, had arrived at the restaurant a few hours before the violence broke out, and had stayed only briefly.
The announcement will most likely only add further fuel to public outrage at Avetian's June 29 death and the brutal beating of two other army doctors with him, allegedly at the hands of Hayrapetian's bodyguards.
As Global Voices Caucasus Editor Onnik Krikorian noted, "[s]uch incidents are not uncommon in Armenia . . . but the latest example comes as the power of the oligarchs in the economically challenged republic is under increasing scrutiny . . ."
Rights activists, opposition groups and many ordinary Armenians contend that Hayrapetian is criminally responsible for the death and beatings and should be held account. Charging that a cover-up is underway, they have petitioned embassies in Yerevan to reject any visa application received from the businessman, who has interests in a variety of economic sectors.
