Epress.am News from Armenia
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) MP Samvel Sargsyan spoke to local daily Joghovurd about the incident between Syunik marzpet (regional governor) Suren Khachatryan and entrepreneur Silva Hambardzumyan. The MP said he was talking on the phone when he heard voices, and turned around and saw not one person hiting another, but two people pushing and pulling each other. “I saw shoving; I approached, split them up, then tried to calm Silva down,” he said.
“As a man, I don’t think you can raise a hand on a woman. Though I didn’t see any hitting, but when I turned around in the commotion, there was shoving. I tried to break it up, along with Menua Harutyunyan,” he said, describing the situation.
However, the same Samvel Sargsyan told another local daily, Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), only yesterday that “I didn’t see the hitting part, [but] I saw that he slapped her and I got there.”
“Fearing Suren Khachatryan, the MPs are slowly, slowly getting in order their statements not yet having turned into [witness] testimonies, so they’ll have room to maneuver in investigative bodies,” reports Joghovurd.
Recall the scandal surrounding Suren Khachatryan and Silva Hambardzumyan erupted after the latter charged that a mining company owned by the governor misappropriated mining equipment worth more than 100 million drams ($265,000 USD) from a mine belonging to her. Following the accusations, Khachatryan publicly threatened to take Hambarzumyan to court, saying that he purchased the equipment.
The press office of Syunik’s regional administration denied the assault allegations in a statement issued later on Tuesday. It accused the female entrepreneur of “slander.”
For its part, Marriott’s security service claimed that no violent incidents were witnessed by hotel staff or caught on surveillance cameras. “We have no cameras in that section,” a security guard, who identified himself as Armen, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Hambardzumyan insisted, however, that the hotel has video evidence of the alleged assault and warned the Marriott management against withholding it.