FAMILY FEUD TURNS VIOLENT IN ARMENIAN VILLAGE
By Hovannes Shoghikian and Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug. 31, 2006

Khachik Badalian, the brother of the former head of the village of
Dalar in Armenia’s Ararat province, on Wednesday was run over by a
car and taken to hospital with bodily injuries.

Police reported that an Ashot turned himself in to the authorities
later that day admitting to hitting Badalian with his VAZ 2102 car.

Investigation into the incident is continuing.

Doctors of the hospital to where Badalian was transported in an
unconscious state told RFE/RL that his life is out of danger.

Earlier on Wednesday Dalar’s village head Tigran Petrosian was found
murdered. According to the region’s prosecutor Suren Parsamian,
former village head Gegham Badalian reported to police and admitted
to the murder. He was taken into custody and a criminal investigation
was instituted into the case.

According to RFE/RL’s information, after the murder of the village’s
incumbent head, the brother of the former village head, Khachik
Badalian, was going around Dalar’s streets with a knife in his hand
and threatening local villagers. It was then that Badalian was hit
by a car. Khachik Badalian had been wanted by police since June 2.

The feud between the two village heads, Badalian and Petrosian,
began after the first round of the 2003 presidential elections that
divided the two friends into different camps, as Badalian supported
Robert Kocharian and Petrosian was the proponent of Stepan Demirchian.

After the first round of the vote, Badalian’s younger brother shot
in the direction of Tigran Petrosian. He was convicted for that later.

In 2005, in the capacity of the new head of the community Tigran
Petrosian launched an inquiry into his predecessor’s work, revealing
certain abuses and wrongdoings. Local prosecutors launched a criminal
investigation into the allegations, which is continuing to date.