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Yerevan Store Owners Suspect Republican MP in Organizing Attack on Their Property: Press

An explosion occurred on Tuesday morning in a store in Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia district: an unknown person blew up the store window, local Haykakan Zhamanak daily reports. Store owner Susanna Hoveyan, the paper writes, suspects ruling Republican Party MP, oligarch Samvel Aleksanyan of organizing the blast. 

Hoveyan told Haykakan Zhamanak that she rushed to the store at around 7 am when she heard the alarm go off. Upon arrival, the owner found a blasted window and an explosive device in the store. According to Hoveyan, it was not the first attack on her property: two days prior, she said, unknown assailants had attempted to blow up the store using gas cylinders. “There were two TT bullets on the cylinders; [the blast] was prevented by the guard.”

Hoveyan added that she suspected “many people” in the attack, including Republican lawmaker, businessman Samvel Aleksanyan: “I've told the police the same.”

The crime was caught on the security cameras of the store: “A masked person puts some device on the window, pulls a thread twice, three times and the window explodes. The police have confiscated the cameras, so I'm waiting for their reply. I won't sit still if they don't discover [the crime], I'll appeal to the highest authorities,” the owner said.

The store is registered in the name of Hoveyan's husband, Arsen Arsenyan, who, according to Haykakan Zhamanak, has worked with Samvel Aleksanyan at one time. The sort of problem between the owners and Aleksanyan is unknown at the moment, the paper stresses, however, rumor has it that it involves a money-related deception. “Arsenyan has recently decided to come clear and confess to Aleksanyan who, according to these rumors, did not forgive him.”

Haykakan Zhamanak was unable to get commentary about the incident from Aleksanyan.