Relatives of Murdered Gyumri Family Give Prosecutor General 4 Days to Answer Their Questions

The relatives of the Avetisyan family that was massacred in Gyumri on January 12, gathered in front of the Shirak Marz (Province) prosecutor’s office yesterday, February 23, demanding that RA General Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan meet with them. Avetsiyan’s relatives noted that they wanted answers to their questions from the Prosecutor: “We will not leave here until our questions are answered. We’ve waited for 42 days, we have no where else to go.”

The relatives of the murdered family wanted to know, in particular, how the Russian soldier Valery Permyakov charged with the murders was found on the Armenian-Turkish border and taken to the Russian military base, and whether the clothes he was wearing had actually belonged to the Avetisyans. The relatives also demanded that the content of Kostanyan’s letter to the Russian General Prosecutor Yuri Chayka be published so it could be clear, whether the General Prosecutor had actually demanded that the case be transferred to Armenian law enforcement. 

Shirak Marz Prosecutor Raffi Aslanyan told the relatives in his office that the Provincial Prosecutor had no authority over the issue, because the investigation of the case is being carried out by Special Investigative Service and is supervised by the RA General Prosecutor.

The Avetisyans' successors stated that they would not leave the prosecutor’s office until Kostanyan came and met them. However, Aslanyan told them that waiting would be in vain because the General Prosecutor would not arrive in Gyumri.

Some time later, the relatives left the prosecutor’s building and decided to give Kostanyan until Thursday, in case the latter does not respond they will organize a protest on Friday. The relatives were confident that if they protested all of Gyumri would join them. They stressed that the incidents on January 15 could repeat, where thousands of people protested demanding that Valery Permyakov be transferred to Armenian law enforcement. 
“We’ve waited for 42 days, we can tolerate being ignored these 3 days also. If [Kostanyan] respected our grief, he would be here,” said one of the Avetisyans' relatives.

Six members of the Avetisyan family were murdered on January 12 in their Gyumri home. The family’s seventh member, 6-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan, who had serious injuries, was transferred to the hospital and died 7 days later. Russian soldier Valery Permyakov is the central murder suspect of the case. Currently, Russian officials are not transferring Permyakov to Armenian law enforcement, although Russia is supposed to under an agreement signed between Armenia and Russia.