Mother-in-Law has Custody of Abuse Victim Zaruhi Petrosyan’s Daughter, NGOs Continue to be Concerned

Lilia Sarkisova, daughter of 20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan who died last year as a result of domestic abuse, taken to the Nork children’s home after her mother’s death, has now been moved back home. The child is now living with her grandparents in an apartment in Yerevan’s Ajapnyak administrative district. She attends the local school and is considered one of its best students. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by Haykuhi Kyupelyan, head of the Education, Culture and Sports Department at the Staff of the Head of the Nork-Marash Administrive District of Yerevan, and secretary of the Custody and Guardianship Commission.

“Based on a decision by the mayor of Masis, after the incident, Lilia was moved to Yerevan Children’s Home. The grandmother, Lilia Sarkisova, often went to visit the child and also expressed a wish to assume custody of her granddaughter. The child’s father, Yanis Sarkisov, while he was being held custody sent a power of attorney with an official seal that the grandmother should recognize the child’s parenthood and become her custodian,” said Kyupelyan.

According to her, during this time, Zaruhi Petrosyan’s legal successor Hasmik Petrosyan was preparing to assume custody of her sister’s daughter.

“According to procedure, we appealed to Masis City Hall so that they carry out the appropriate inspections in Lilia Sarkisova’s apartment and present a corresponding conclusion, that there have to be satisfactory conditions in the home to move the child. Both the grandmother’s and the aunt’s apartments were inspected. It turned out that the conditions in the grandmother’s home in the city of Masis were not satisfactory, while the aunt is pregnant and lives with her husband’s family in a rented apartment in the city of Abovyan. A certain time later, the grandmother, Lilia Sarkisova, submits an application that she and her husband are going to move the child to their apartment on Nazarbekyan St. in Ajapnyak administrative district,” said the public official.

The new apartment’s conditions were inspected and determined to be adequate and the child could be taken there.

“We had no grounds to suspect the grandmother; we asked for all the documents; we became convinced that everything is in order and we confirmed the guardianship. Since July, the child has been living with her grandparents and goes to kindergarten. Once a month, I make a mandatory phone call to the No. 36 kindergarten principal Anahit Hayrapetyan to ask about the child. According to the principal, Lilia is very well cared for and is dressed quite well — she is a bright and clever child. I recently had a phone conversation also with the kindergarten nurse, Anahit Harutyunyan, who said that young Lilia is at the center of the staff’s attention,” she said.

According to Kyupelyan, several NGOs regularly ask about the child’s fate.

Recall, 20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan died on Oct. 1, 2010, after regular abuse at the hands of her husband, Yanis Sarkisov. Last month, Sarkisov was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “infliction of willful heavy damage to health which caused the death of the aggrieved by negligence”.

Zaruhi Petrosyan’s relatives have repeatedly said that Zaruhi’s mother-in-law was an accessory to the crime. The court, however, did not find sufficient grounds to charge Sarkisov’s mother.