Epress.am News from Armenia
Several representatives of Armenia's Yazidi community staged a protest action Friday afternoon near the Armenian presidential residence demanding that authorities solve the case of the aggravated assault against residents of Yerevan's Silikyan district Shirin Aliyan and his wife, Tarlan Sadayan.
On October 15, 2015, as stated by the demonstrators, a group of unknown people broke into the victims' house and stole 20 thousand euros and gold jewelry by threatening them with a knife. The attackers also beat up the spouses and trashed the 2-story house.
“Until now they paid no attention to us. We'd go to the police only to find locked doors. Today, however, upon finding out we were going to hold a protest, they summoned us to the station. There are photos of the criminals, but they don't show them to us. [Police officer] says ‘if we show them to you, you’ll go kill each other.’ Let them be judged by law, even if it means not knowing who they are. The investigator says he knows who [the perpetrator] is. Well, why don’t you arrest him them? If the robber were Armenian, he’d have long been jailed; but Yazidis have money – they get away [with crimes] by bribing [the police],” Shirin Aliyan said.
He added that today law enforcement authorities urged him not to stage demonstration in front of the presidential palace: “Why shouldn't I protest? Someone has been doing his best for two months now to cover up the case. Today they said they'd show us the photos [of the suspects] at the precinct, but we were shown nothing. They were just trying to win time to prevent us from coming here.”
Aliyan called on Armenia's President to assist in the disclosure of the crime, otherwise, “I'll go cross the border into Turkey, or camp out here with my wife. We're also Armenian people!”
Alikhane Mame, one of the protest participants, said the case “is receiving shades of ethnic discrimination:” “It's a very simple case and can be solved very quickly. There is evidence, there are witnesses; however, nothing is being done for its discovery.”
Protester Mnats Kochikyan, in turn, told that two years ago he had also been subjected to a similar crime: “In 2013 our house was broken into; they robbed and beat us up, ruined the house. They caused us 10 million drams worth of damages, but the case has yet to be solved. When an Armenian gets robbed of a thousand drams, the case gets solved the next day. Ours, however, don't.”
The deputy head of Yerevan's Mashtots police division arrived at the demonstration site to “provide details of the investigation” to the protesters. The law enforcement official, however, refused to identify himself to the our reporter.
At the end of the protest action, spouses Shirin Aliyan and Tarlan Sadayan submitted an appeal letter to the department of Reception of Citizens, Appeals, Complaints and Proposals of the President's office.