Remember We are Here

SUZAN SIMONYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:39:49 – 21/05/2011

The parents of soldiers killed at peace are a walking punishment for
the high-ranking officials walking in and out of the government
building. Every Thursday, aged early, with photos of the smiling faces
of their young sons, they stand near the luxury cars of the ministers
and their contented drivers, and this neighborhood makes their misery
even more striking.

During the hours spent there the parents have noticed that each
official has a way of protection from them. The best wanted man here
is the prosecutor general.

`He used to walk beside us quickly, now we cannot find out how he
manages to get into the building,’ says Anahit Lazarian, the mother
of Arayik Avetisyan killed in Vaik Region.

During the years spent in front of the government building the
prosecutor general has never approached the mothers.

Unlike the prosecutor general, the minister of defense Seyran Ohanyan
is more polite and bold. He does not avoid face to face meetings. Two
weeks ago he told the group of parents, `I could leave the building
through other holes, couldn’t I?’

This boldness is appreciated. `It’s good that he at last talks to us,’
says the mother of Valery Muradyan, reportedly a suicide, who comes to
the government every Thursday from Armavir.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has met with the parents for several
times and asked them politely how he can help them. But they never
meet him in front of the government. They think the prime minister
comes to work by helicopter. The parents know that the prime minister
cannot interfere with the affairs of courts but he is the third person
in the country and, and Aghvan Hovsepyan comes to his office, so he
could go to the courts with his lawyers where the cases of the killed
soldiers are heard and see what is happening there.

The father of Tigran Ohanjanyan who was reportedly killed by electric
current says he tried to talk to Hranush Hakobyan but she would not
even look at them.

The minister of health Artem Kushkyan whom they wanted to ask to
attend to his doctors who write controversial conclusions on criminal
cases has started to enter the government from the other side.

The only person who came up to the parents was the chief of police
Alik Sargsyan, as a result they had a meeting with the head of the
staff of the police. And once the minister of energy promised to talk
to the expert who had led the examination connected with electricity.
And he did.

`We come here for them to see, to remember that we are there, and we
will not leave them alone,’ say the mothers of boys who have become
pictures.