The relatives of the Avetisyan family of Gyumri met with the District Prosecutor of the Shirak marz Raffi Aslanyan on February 23. The grieving relatives demanded that Armenia’s Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan come to Gyumri to meet with them. They said that forty days have passed since the gruesome murder of the seven members of the Avetisyan family by a Russian soldier stationed at the 102nd Russian Military Base in Gyumri and they have yet to receive any clarification on or progress about the investigation.
District Prosecutor Raffi Aslanyan informed the family members that they should submit a written request for a meeting with the Prosecutor General and that he would make sure to personally deliver the note. “The Shirak district prosecutor’s office has no authority in this particular criminal case,” Aslanyan explained.
The relatives of the Avetisyan family were not appeased and said they had a number of questions, including the exact location of the suspect Valery Permyakov and the content of the letter that Kostanyan sent to the Russian Prosecutor General requesting his handover to the Armenian side.
“I feel and understand your pain, but every family cannot simply show up and sit in the district prosecutor’s office…if you want details about the investigation, you can submit a written request to the investigators,” Aslanyan said when the family refused to leave.
Police officers entered the prosecutor’s office and discussions with the family continued behind closed doors in the absence of the district prosecutor and journalists. Following that meeting, the relatives of the Avetisyan family announced that they will give Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan one day to come to Gyumri to answer their questions otherwise they will begin a series of protests.
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In the early morning hours of January 12, six members of the Avetisyan family were killed in their sleep, their six-month-old infant Seryozha survived but died a week later in hospital from his injuries. The main suspect in the crime, Russian soldier Valery Permyakov was apprehended trying to cross the Armenia-Turkey border, allegedly by Russian border guards. He is currently being held at the 102nd Russian base in Gyumri.
Following Permyakov’s arrest, protests erupted in Gyumri and Yerevan demanding he be handed over to Armenian law enforcement bodies. In response to these demands, Armenia’s Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said that the Russian Constitution does not permit the extradition of its civilians to foreign governments. This caused an uproar across the country and on January 14 and 15 demonstrations took place demanding Permyakov’s handover. The Prosecutor General gave a “man’s promise” that he would write to his Russian counterpart about this request.
On February 3, the Prosecutor General’s office issued a statement that Kostanyan had appealed to Russia’s Prosecutor General but to date, there has been no response.
