Proshyan Residents Block Road, Demand Authorities Solve Murder of Village Head

About 500 residents of the village of Proshyan in Kotayk marz (province) today blocked the main Ashtarak-Yerevan road from about 2 to 3:30 pm, demanding that RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan and RA General Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan come to their village and explain why the murder of the village head, Hrach Muradyan, is still not solved. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by one of the residents, Aleksan Smbatyan.

"People are angry, so we decided to block the road. We will open the road when the aforementioned officials come and meet with us," he said. 

The residents later opened the road to traffic when a representative from the RA General Prosecutor's Office came and said that Gevorg Kostanyan will meet with them on Monday. Residents, however, said that if the meeting doesn't take place they will resort to similar acts of civil disobedience. 

Note, Hrach Muradyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), was murdered exactly one year ago, on April 2, near his office. In the same month, Arayik Petrosyan was arrested and charged with the murder. Friends and family of both Muradyan and Petrosyan have repeatedly claimed that Petrosyan had nothing to do with the crime. 

On Dec. 25, 2013, Petrosyan was released from Nubarashen Penitentiary, as the preliminary investigation could not confirm his participation in the crime.