STORY OF TSITSERNAVANK CONTINUES

KarabakhOpen
24-12-2007 12:20:17

The leader of the Democratic faction of the National Assembly Vahram
Atanesyan had stated during the question and answer session of the
parliament that a few days before the local election on October 14
about 20 people had been registered in the villages of Tsitsernavank
and Melikashen of the region of Kashatagh, which affected the outcome
of the election.

Later it became known that more than 40 had been registered.

The head of the police then Arshavir Gharamyan promised to address
to this.

A few days ago the member of parliament got the response of the Police.

According to the law on administrative and territorial division,
the villages of Tsisternavank and Melikashen of the region of
Kashatagh form one community. "Before the adoption of the law the
place Malibeili was within the administrative area of the community
of Melikashen but now it is within the community of Tsitsernavank,"
runs the response of the Police.

Member of Parliament Atanesyan says Article 23 of the law passed on
April 25, 2007 to which the police refers sets down that the community
of Tsitsernavank includes the villages of Tsitsernavank and Melikashen,
and the place Malibeili is not marked within the administrative border
of Tsitsernavank. "And if someone speaks about such an area in the
region of Kashatagh, it does not mean that the same official cannot
misinterpret the law," Vahram Atanesyan told Karabakh-Open.com.

"As to the claims of the police that the same demographic situation
was during the parliamentary election 2005, and the referendum and
the adoption of the Constitution in 2006, according to official
information, 26 new families have appeared on the voters’ registers
of the communities. In other words, over several months the population
of Tsitsernavank and Melikashen rose abruptly.

It would have been gratifying if the population had grown in the other
parts of the region. In reality, however, the number of voters of the
region had decreased by 500 from the presidential election. Therefore,
the sudden appearance of 26 new settlers questioned the legitimacy
and justice of the election," said the member of parliament.

Vahram Atanesyan thinks the second part of the response of the Police
is also important, which refers to the complaint that the former head
of the community of Tsitsernavank Haik Harutiunyan keeps a gun with
which he threatened Zakharyan and other citizens. On October 15,
2007 Tuman Zakharyan, an inhabitant of Tsitsernavank, went to the
police of Kashatagh and complained that Harutiunyan had threatened
to kill him. The police found evidence and on October 25, 2007 the
files were sent to the prosecutor of the region.

The member of parliament says on November 18, 2007 the prosecutor
of Kashatagh Karapetyan notified the parties that no charges were
brought on the complaint of Tuman Zakharyan. The deputy prosecutor
Ghazaryan made this decision, who found out that in his complaint
Tuman Zakharyan did not mention threats, he informed that in Autumn
2004 his adolescent son found 2 AKM machine guns and handed them out
to the head of the community of Tsitsernavank Haik Harutiunyan to
give them to the military commissar of the region of Kashatagh.

It also became known that A. Harutiunyan had noticed that one of the
machine guns was deformed and threw it into the river of Aghavno,
and handed out the other to the military commissar Sayat Lokyan.

Vahram Atanesyan says if according to the notification of the Police
Haik Harutiunyan threatened Zakharyan in 2007, ostensibly he had got
the gun out of the river he had thrown it in 2004. Although the police
did not find bullets to be shot from the machine gun.

"My conclusion is that the Police of Kashatagh had interfered with the
election process and in order to dispel the impression of my inquiry,
it extended confusing information to the head office of the Police.

Unfortunately, instead of investigating this incident the Police
displayed corporative solidarity and relying on the "comments"
allegedly by the regional police, extended false facts to the speaker
of the National Assembly. In this connection, I am going to make an
inquiry from the government and ask to another objective investigation
to make the circumstances clear to the parties, to me, the society,
since a region is concerned the population of which is highly sensitive
to similar issues," Vahram Atanesyan said.