Hayk Gevorgyan Says Where He was Hiding for 20 Days

Veteran journalist, Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) correspondent Hayk Gevorgyan, speaking to reporters after being released from Nubarashen penitentiary today, said that his arrest on Feb. 3 was prepared 20 days in advance and even under these conditions, the police conducted the arrest with blatant violations.

Recall, Gevorgyan is accused of running over Ashot Frangulyan with his car on Jan. 13 and fleeing the scene. The journalist refutes the charges, saying that he is being targeted for his journalistic activites.

Asked what exactly happened on Jan. 13, Hayk Gevorgyan said: “That’s the juiciest part; I’ve kept it for later. To tell the truth, I was expecting them to catch me on Jan. 14, and then on the 15th; then when they didn’t catch me, I thought they’d get me on the 16th and like this it became prolonged — I was ready every day. You see, they picked me up outside my house; I was dressed warmly. I generally had no doubt that they were going to come after me because, thank god, I know the intellectual level of this system quite well.”

According to the opposition reporter, the arrest was more so a warning and he addressed the reasons for this. “They’re putting on a great show: police chief Vova Gasparyan, super policeman, and suddenly some people think that it’s ok to write negative things about him. And they want to show what happens to those who write bad things about them. And, as you can see, I am standing before you alive and well,” he said, emphasizing that he will continue to write the same way as he did before.

Gevorgyan mentioned that he wasn’t allowed to make any phone calls while he was arrested. “I, simply fulfilling my civic duty, said I want to make a phone call, so that they can say no. They said no; I said, very well. In arresting me, they didn’t use force — they simply put on a beautiful show outside the building.”

Asked whether he called Ashot Frangulyan a “blyad” (“whore” in Russian), Gevorgyan said, “I generally don’t use that word and use exclusively Armenian curses.”

A reporter jokingly asked him where he hid for 20 days, to which Gevorgyan replied: “Twice, on Thursdays, I hid in the government building; twice I was hidden at press conferences; and every day, in the pages of the paper.”

The journalist said he had a “great time” in jail: there were 8 people in his prison cell who talked about their lives to Gevorgyan.

“Eight different destinies, eight human stories. It was very, very interesting: would you believe it, I slept very little because I was listening so much, getting these people to talk. Since they took my pen from me, I tried to remember everything and I did,” he said.

Also speaking to the press outside Nubarashen penitentiary was Haykakan Jamanak chief editor Nikol Pashinyan, who said that Hayk’s release was the result of the vehement outcry from both the public and the media.