Epress.am News from Armenia
With calls of "the state killed Hrach Muradyan" and "We demand to identify and punish the real perpetrators of the crime," several dozen residents of the village of Proshyan in Kotayk marz (province), Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) representatives, activists, and war veterans protested outside the president's residence in central Yerevan today.
According to demonstrators, the 2010 attempted murder of Karabakh War veteran, ARF-D member, and Proshyan village head Hrach Muradyan and the 2011 attack on Proshyan village municipality concluded with Muradyan's murder on Apr. 2, 2013, and till today, with the authorities' implicit permissiveness, the perpetrators have not been identified.
Friends of the murdered village head are dissatisfied with the 7-month-long investigation, believing that the "forces" that carried out the crime are contributing to the case not being solved.
Demonstrators handed over a letter to the letters division of the president's residence, asking Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to take immediate control of the disclosure of the murder case and ensure a complete and comprehensive investigation.
Speaking to the Epress.am correspondent, many of the village residents said they are afraid of speaking in front of the camera because they are constantly being threatened.
"Everyone's afraid, why not? Today they can kill us too. Look, the forces have come [referring to the police]; supposedly there are few demonstrators. They just announced on their walkie-talkie, they were saying, 'Should we get closer or no?' Let them shoot; let's be done with it — let them know, the last Armenians were massacred and that's it. Our state is not interested in the death of heros," said Muradyan's friend Aleksan Smbatyan, adding that threats are not heard only in Proshyan: "Living in Armenia is itself a threat."