Murder Accused Insists Former Wife to Blame for His Deadly Actions

Vladik Martirosyan, who is facing a murder charge and two attempted murder charges, said in court on Monday he was sorry and regretted his actions the day he attacked his former wife and her parents with an axe. At the same time, he said his former wife, Taguhi Mansuryan, was also to blame for the tragic events that led to her mother’s death.

During her testimony in the courtroom of the First Instance Court of Yerevan’s Shengavit district, Mansuryan said she was subjected to physical violence by her former husband even in pregnancy, as a result of which she nearly suffered a miscarriage.

“He hit me once when I was pregnant, and when I tried to run away, he put a knife to my belly. His cousin was also at our house at the time, but he did nothing to stop [Vladik]. I picked up the phone to call his uncle – because he had told me to call him if Vladik tried to hit me again – but he did not allow me to and proceeded to beat me,” Mansuryan told the court.

Police, she added, never took her complaints seriously; not even on the day of the deadly attack: “On that day, Vladik had come to our apartment building, and my mother phoned the police to ask for help because she was afraid he would attack me once I got home. But the police did nothing, and when I arrived at our building, Vladik attacked and hit me. When my father came out and took me home, Vladim began beating my mom. Then there was an argument, during which he called the police and said ‘Karine, Vachagan and Taguhi are beating me.’ The officers who came to the scene wanted to take all of us to the station, but I asked them to at least let my father stay at home with the baby.”

The officers, according to Mansuryan, did not detain her former husband because he insisted he needed medical assistance “after the attack” and had to wait for an ambulance.

After spending 3 hours at the police station, the women returned to their building, and Taguhi’s mother asked the accompanying police officers to check the area to see whether Vladik was around. The officers, for their part, simply looked out of the car and assured the women that “everything was fine.”

“We went up to our apartment, and as I was trying to open the door, I felt a blow to my shoulder. Upon turning, I saw Vladik standing there with an axe in his hand. I began yelling, and my mother stood between us to protect me. I don’t remember much of the events from then on; I have a blurred memory of falling and of my father’s face. Next I woke up in the hospital and saw my blood-soaked father on a stretcher, after which I again lost consciousness,” Taguhi said.

The accused, in turn, insisted that the incident would not have happened had Taguhi allowed him to visit their child: “I regret my actions, I do, but it’s entirely your fault. None of this would have happened if you allowed me to see my kid,” Martirosyan charged.

According to Taguhi, however, her former husband “was never particularly concerned” with their child’s well-being: “He only showed up to one of the five scheduled meetings. He’d argue that he could not come all the way from Karabakh to Yerevan to see the kid. I subsequently asked the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service (JACES) to stop the visitations, and the case was sent to court. He even threatened to kill me once when we were at the JACES office and said the kid would not turn 2 or would end up in an orphanage.”

The next hearing on the case will take place on April 28.