MP Demands Handover of Gyumri Massacre Suspect in an Open Letter Addressed to Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nefarious attitude toward the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia is not justified, noted Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan in her letter of demand addressed to Putin.

“Finally, after great delay, You, as the leader of Russian Federation, have expressed your condolences over the phone to the relatives of the victims, as well as, to the entire Armenian people, in connection to the tragedy that took place in Gyumri a few days earlier where an entire family was murdered, while the six-month old child’s life-and-death struggle, sadly, ended in death.

Armenian citizens are approaching the extraordinarily difficult political and economic situation created in Armenia, as well as in Russia, with a conscious understanding. However, those conditions do not justify your long silence and wrongful attitude toward the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia,” noted the MP.

Postanjyan underlines that after the collapse of the USSR the deployment of the military base and renewal of contracts imply mutual respect, mutual interest, and cooperation between Russia and Armenia.

“Russia’s gains from these agreements are not only monstrous, but also have no alternative. Oddly enough, Armenian citizens have been witnessing increasingly frequent non-rational and illegal decisions by the Russian side (starting with selling 4 billion worth of arms to Armenia’s enemy Azerbaijan and ending with the tragedy in Gyumri),” wrote Postanjyan.

She stressed that Putin’s condolences to the victims' family and the Armenian people did not ease the people's grief, while the Russian president’s statement that “all investigative processes will be done in the shortest period and the guilty will be punished according to the law” does not inspire confidence. That, according to Postanjyan, is due to the fact that Russian Federal Security Service border guards' decision to hand over someone crossing the border to the 102-nd military base is a violation of the Armenian Constitution, RA Criminal and Criminal procedural codes and the agreement signed between Armenia and Russia.

“In this situation, the citizens of the Republic of Armenia and Armenians around the world are expecting your reasonable decision, to restore lawfulness and transfer the suspect in the major crime, Valery Permyakov, to the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, avoiding a confrontation between inter-state relations,” concluded Zaruhi Postanjyan in her letter of demand.