MOSCOW CITY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE BELIEVES ATTACK AGAINST ARMENIANS STIRS UP NATIONAL HATRED

AZG Armenian Daily
05/07/2006

The Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office stated that the attack against
the Armenians in the Moscow underground station is a case of "stirring
up national hatred and hostility."

The Russian mass media sources informed that the Moscow City
Prosecutor’s Office ordered the Prosecutor’s Office of the
Moscow Underground to qualify the case. "At present, the Moscow
City Prosecutor’s Office ordered the Prosecutor’s Office of the
Moscow Underground to accept the case and qualify that as a case of
hooliganism according to article # 282 of RF Criminal Code," Sergey
Marchenko, representative of the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office,
said this.

The Russian mass media sources informed that that the police has
already detained one of the teens who attacked two Armenians. That
is 27 years old resident of Lipetsk.

It’s worth mentioning that On 2 July in the evening, a group of teens
attacked two Armenians in an underground train. Both the Armenians,
Vacheh Tovmasyan (20) and Varazdat Hakobyan (23) got knife wounds. At
the underground station "Kuznetsky Most" they applied for first aid
and were taken to the hospital. The attackers escaped. The injured
say they were attacked by aggressive young people in black and armed
with knives as soon as they came out of the train.

It’s worth mentioning that Rashid Nurgaliyev, RF Interior Minister,
said at a press conference in Yerevan, that 4 Armenians have been
killed in Russia since the beginning of the year.

Another citizen of Kazakhstan, student of Military-Engineering Academy
of the Russian Defense Ministry, Amantay Yerbozov, and two citizens
of Uzbekistan, were attacked and taken to hospital with wounds. The
attackers escaped this time as well. The Russian Police do not rule
out that the attacks are a result of xenophobia.