HOW THE STOLEN CRIMINAL CASE OF "KARABAKH" COMMITTEE WAS DISCOVERED
Kima Yeghiazaryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Nov 12 2007

Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the repaired building of the
Prosecutor’s Office of Malatia-Sebastia district. Profiting by the
occasion, the journalist addressed few questions to Prosecutor General
AGHVAN HOVSEPYAN.

"We know that the Prosecutor’s office is conducting a service
investigation in connection with the disappearance of the criminal
case of ‘Karabakh’ Committee. Is the investigation over? What have
you found out?"

"We received a request from ‘Iravounk’ newspaper. They asked us
to provide them certain data from the case. Based on the request,
I recommended that the case be submitted to me from the archive, so
as we could decide what data to provide to ‘Iravounk’ newspaper. The
case turned out to be missing from the archive. Naturally, I ordered
a service investigation.

As a result of the inquest it was found out that Head of the
investigative department had received the case by the recommendation
of the Prosecutor General as far back as on November 6, 1996 and
submitted it to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first President. Today we
have sent a note to Levon Ter-Petrsyn with a request to return the
case to the Prosecutor’s Office. The note was signed by the Head of
the Staff of the Prosecutor’s Office, since the archive is maintained
by his staff members."

"Do you think Mr. Ter-Petrosyan will return the case?"

"I find it difficult to say whether he will return the case or not. But
I must say that under the law, the investigative body is not allowed
to hand over a criminal case to another body. Even the President of
the Republic is not entitled to request a criminal case in accordance
with the law and keep it under his control. In 1996 this happened by
a gross violation of law. Criminal cases cannot be maintained in the
archives of any other body. Especially in private archives. I think
Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be reasonable enough to return the case to
the Prosecutor’s Office."

In addition to our request, we also received information from the
General Prosecutor’s Office that a special procedure is prescirbed
for getting acquainted with any case maintained in their archive. The
shift of all the criminal cases is recorded in the archive registry.

It was the mechanism of such clerical work that helped those
conducting the service investigation find out what shift had occurred
in connection with the criminal case of "Karabakh" committee.

However, we later managed to find out details on the specific
circumstances in which the case was brought out from the archive.

Based on the information we possess, Head of the archive was in one
of the marzes on November 6, 1996, but he was urgently called to the
Prosecutor’s Office and instructed to open the archive. The case
was submitted in the evening, after the end of the working hour,
so as the employees of the Prosecutor’s Office would not see the
volumes of the case brought out of the building. That time Head of
the Investigative Department of the Prosecutor’s Office was Souren
Goulyan, who had given his signature for removing the case from the
archive. S. Gyozalyan handed over the case to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
2 guards. And the volumes of the case were moved to the Presidential
palace in 2 sacks.

By the way, the case consisted of 61 volumes, and not 50, as was
mentioned recently.

The fact that L. Ter-Petrosyan decided to have the criminal case of
"Karabakh" Committee removed from the archive of the Prosecutor’s
Office and keep it under his own control is no less noteworthy. It
covered the time period following the presidential elections held
in September, 1996. A month after being "re-elected" to the post of
President with the help of tanks he realized that it was necessary to
make the volumes of the case disappear, as the dangerous episodes it
contained were not probably few in number and might bring harm to his
"spotless" image.

When the material was ready for publication, it became known that that
L. Ter-Petrosyan had made the following statement: "At my request,
Artavazd Gevorkyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia
sent the volumes of the "Karabakh Committee" case to presidential
residence in 1995 or 1995 and submitted it to the Presidential
staff with relevant formulations. This was done with the purpose of
depositing the materials in the museum that was to have opened on
the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Karabakh movement.

After the shift of power the materials of the "Karabakh Committee"
case were moved to my personal archive, and to date they have been
kept in complete form. None of the Prosecutor Generals that followed
Artavazd Gevorkyan has applied to me with a request or demand for
returning the case. And even today I believe that the museum dedicated
to the Karabakh Movement is the most convenient place for keeping the
materials. However, if necessary, I am ready to immediately return
them to the archive of the Prosecutor’s Office."

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN

After familiarizing ourselves with LTP’s statement, there naturally
emerge several questions.

First: the disappearance of the "Karabakh" Committee case has been
discussed for already a week. Why did Mr. Ter-Petrosyan decide to
make such a statement only after the service investigation allowed
to find out who was keeping the case.

Second: L. Ter-Petrosyan expresses willingness to send the case to
the Prosecutor’s Office; however, we wonder whether he will return
the volumes of the case in the same form (safe and sound) as he
received. Or he has cut the sections that were unfavorable for him?

Third: What is the sense of giving an instruction 2-3 years ago
for removing the case from the archive ago for displaying them in a
non-existent museum? The opposite process is accepted in international
practice. First, the museum is built, and then necessary materials
are collected.