Epress.am News from Armenia
The son of an imprisoned political activist and his military training teacher appealed to police to intervene in a violent altercation that occurred between them on Tuesday. Shahen Harutyunyan, son of Shant Harutyunyan, and his teacher, Hrachya Grigoryan, both submitted reports to the police. In the incident that occurred during military training in School No. 139, Grigoryan said that Harutyunyan "hit him on the head with a chair and caused injury," while Harutyunyan, in turn, said the teacher "hit him twice on the chest and caused physical pain." According to the police, medical examinations have been appointed.
Harutyunyan described the incident in detail yesterday on his Facebook page: "Today my day started well, everything was going normally. In school, I recited the poem dedicated to my father; I received praise from my teachers. I was very happy that the teachers said warm words to me. It seemed to me that it was one of the happiest days of my life, but… Let me tell you how the story began," he wrote. Harutyunyan claims that two weeks ago Major Grigoryan began to personally insult him during class.
"I replied in a very civilized manner. Then the conversation moved to the independence of Armenia. He tried to convince me that we've never been independent and will never be, and this is all well and good, since we cannot have life without Russia. He also said that our fedayeen died in vain, that Russia is our 'daddy,' that we're slaves, and Armenia cannot exist without Russia," read Harutyunyan's Facebook status update.
According to Harutyunyan, when he objected, Major Grigoryan said he's mentally unstable. "I have a [mental] disorder because I think Armenia should be independent, and not being under Russia's yoke, Armenia will be better. He told me: 'You're sick; I have nothing to say to you.' And I said, better that I be sick than be a slave like you. I said it and left. At the next lesson, today, while singing the anthem, all the students laughed, including me. I too have feelings and it turned out that I couldn't help it and began to laugh. The Major inflicted the worst insults to me, saying that I'm a sheep, I am unworthy and a scoundrel. He threatened to beat me for laughing during the anthem, but I didn't reply, thinking that I was wrong, you can't laugh during the anthem," he wrote.
Harutyunyan then claims that Grigoryan again insulted him, though he asked him not to. "He said, should I take you to the room now and beat you or should we go see the director? I said, you can't beat him; he said, we're going to see the director, and we went. The director was in a meeting; we were supposed to go at the end of class. We returned to the classroom and again he began to insult me. I asked then demanded he stop. I swore if he insults my dignity once again, I'll hit him. And he, knowing that, insulted me. I approached him to hit him, [but] understood that you shouldn't hit, and instead said like a donkey he doesn't listen to me. He approached me and issued a powerful blow to my chest. I kicked him. He likewise kicked me, and I hit him on the head with a chair. If I didn't hit him, he'd kill me. I hit him and left the classroom. All the students were in shock. Then they told me that after I left, the major tried to discredit me, saying that I'm instilling an anti-Armenian spirit. I returned home," he wrote.