Armenian Student Stabbed in Russia by Nationalists, Insist Parents

The murder of an Armenian national studying in Russia has been the topic of much discussion on blogs and social media as of late. Bloggers and those leaving comments have been divided into two camps: some believe that Armen Sahakyan, 19, became the victim of furious nationalists, skinheads or other radicals on the memorial day of Yegor Sviridov, 28, who was killed in Dec. 2010 during a huge brawl in Moscow between football fans and migrants from the Caucasus region.

Others believe that Armen’s death is unrelated to the tense situation in the country.

“The Slavs continue the massacre in the streets every day. And all this takes place against the background of silence by law enforcement officials, who are still limited by the characterization of just ordinary criminal murder and the recollection of the article to which a criminal case has been launched,” writes tltgorod.ru.

It’s necessary to note that on Jan. 15, as in many Russian cities, a demonstration in Sviridov’s memory was to take place in the provincial capital of Samara. But the march never took place. Police arrested 21 individuals, 11 of whom were minors. Recall that on that same day, third-year Samara State University (SSU) Faculty of Law student Sahakyan was stabbed at a local bus stop. The young man flagged a taxi and took himself to a nearby hospital, but died before he could be treated. The slain student’s family has no doubt that he was killed for his Caucasian (i.e. not white, but one from the Caucasus region) appearance.

“On the evening of Jan. 15, his friends called him and proposed they celebrate the successful end of the term,” said Armen’s father, Andranik Sahakyan, “he took the tram and got out at the Posnikov Ravine stop. We assume that about 5 youth began to follow him. I think they were skinheads.

“Doctors told me how he was stabbed directly in the heart, then the criminals pulled the knife up and rotated it 180 degrees. However, Armen was able to walk an additional 15 meters and ask a taxi driver to take him to a hospital. On the way to the hospital, he died.”

According to Andranik Sahakyan, nothing valuable was stolen from his son’s person, though that evening he had a gold chain around his neck and gold bracelets, a good watch, a cell phone and money. This excludes the possibility that he was murdered with the intent of theft.