"WHAT HAPPENED TO ARZAKANTSYAN WAS AN ATTEMPTED MURDER"

A1+
[07:44 pm] 27 September, 2007

"I do not know more than you do about the incident that happened
to Tigran Arzakantsyan", said Samvel Nikoyan, the NA deputy and the
member of the "Republican Party of Armenia". However hard he tired
to insist that he was not aware of the details of the incident,
he confirmed and denied certain circulating news.

"We talked to our sources in Moscow and acknowledged that the
operation lasted 3-4 hours, then Arzakantsyan was taken to reanimation
department and his state was grave but stable. The doctors rely on
his resistibility". Samvel Nikoyan also confirmed that the incident
was recorded in "Metropol" casino in Moscow.

Since the incident took place in the hall of the casino, it means that
the dispute between Tigran Arzakantsyan and other men from Caucasus
have also been recorded. It is should be reminded that in the result
of that dispute, Tigran Arzakantsyan was injured by a knife then shot.

According to the circulating news, those who shot at Tigran
Arzakantsyan were Armenians and even NA deputies.

"They are just allegations. We have no verified information, besides
the fact that those men were from Caucasus. I have also heard that
they were Armenians, but they are just allegations of unknown sources
and may be wrong", said Nikoyan.

The RA Embassy of Armenia in Russia, disseminated a press release,
that the RA Prime Minister who was in Russia on the day of the
incident had nothing in common with it, however, the fact is that
Tigran Arzakantsyan accompanied Serge Sargsyan during the meeting
that day. By the way, Serge Sargsyan stayed at "President" hotel,
which was close to "Metropol" casino.

"It is a pre-election period, and many people are interested in
speculating the incident and connecting it with political figures. The
person, whom you mentioned and what happened have no connection with
each other. The Embassy was true when said that Tigran Arzakantsyan
had nothing to do with our official delegation in Moscow. I have
called Moscow myself and verified this. Many other people also could
be present at the meetings of our delegation in Moscow. If I were
in Moscow that day and knew that Serge Sargsyan was to meet with
students, I would also like to meet them. In my opinion, the deputy
did not commit a crime by participating in that meeting", said Nikoyan.

According to the official viewpoint of the "Republican Party of
Armenia", what happened to their colleague was an attempted murder. "We
said it was an attempted murder, since after the knife-wounding they
shot at him. Which means that what happened was an ordered murder". By
the way, Mr Nikoyan refused to say whether there was any connection
between Arzakantsyan and the criminal world. Today "A1+" reminded Mr
Nikoyan that Tigran Arzakantsyan was the deputy, who being the member
of the "Republican Party of Armenia", answering to the questions of
journalists at the NA, said that he was not sure whether he would
join the "Republican Party of Armenia" or not. This proved that he was
not aware that he was the member of the "Republican Party of Armenia".

To the question whether how Mr Arzakantsyan has contributed to the
party’s activities, Mr Nikoyan responded: "The doors of our party
are open to everyone. Of Course, I wouldn’t like any member of our
party to be involved in such things. No one is safeguarded from such
incidents, but this was not an occasional case. You should ask those
who voted for him why he appeared in the NA".

Samvel Nikoyan doubted to say whether the incident was connected with
the NA deputy Ruben Hayrapetyan. We should remind that on 29 March
2006 Arzakantsyan lost 850 thousand dollars at "Kutuzov-hall" casino in
Moscow and was beaten severely for not paying the money. According to
the circulating news, he was beaten by Ruben Hayrapetyan’s people. The
"Republican Party of Armenia" considers that the incident took place
in Russia thus, the case was investigated there and the RA would
not interfere in it. "We trust Russian representatives of the law",
said Samvel Nikoyan.