Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

ON JUNE 12, 1993 MONTE MELKONIAN WAS KILLED
Stepan Sargsyan

KarabakhOpen
12-06-2007 18:05:12

On June 12, 1993 Monte Melkonian was killed during an operation
to destroy the military strongholds in the villages of the Aghdam
region. Countless more Monte Melkonyans died while liberating Lower
Karabakh. Yet those who have entrusted with the job of the security
and development of our country declare shamelessly their intention to
easily give up what was attained with so mush sacrifice. Those who
silently stand next to such declarations and do not utter a single
word in opposition are equally guilty of such betrayal as those who
loudly promote the return of Lower Karabakh. The memory and sacrifice
of our heroes is not respected by merely organizing and attending
pompous ceremonies, giving elaborate speeches and laying flowers at
the feet of their statues. The true respect is the completion of the
job they started, holding on to the land which they liberated and
settle it. Yet the current NKR officials have even failed to clearly
and openly state that they oppose the return of Lower Karabakh, the
territory without which NKR cannot be a viable state and ensure the
safety of its citizens even if it’s recognized by the international
community. Shame on those who want to give away our motherland and
annul the sacrifice of Monte, shame on those who want to desecrate
the memory of Monte!

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
June 12, 2007
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
E-mail: [email protected]

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE UPHOLDS SUBCOMMITTEE ACTION

Maintains Military Parity

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly today commended the full House
Appropriations Committee for upholding its subcommittee’s decision to
maintain military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the
Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Foreign Operations Bill. The legislation, which
allocates $3.5 million in military assistance to both countries, sends a
clear message to the Administration, which called for asymmetrical
assistance with a proposed $2 million increase over Armenia.

Specifically, the Committee approved $3 million in Foreign Military
Financing (FMF) and $500,000 in International Military Education and
Training (IMET) in funding for each country. In addition, the Committee
approved $68 million in economic assistance to Armenia, a nearly $35
million jump from the Administration’s request, but less than the nearly
$75 million Congress appropriated in FY 2007. Lawmakers also slated up
to $6 million in humanitarian aid for Nagorno Karabakh and renewed its
strong support for confidence-building measures among the parties to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Specifically, the report language states:

"The Committee continues its strong support for confidence-building
measures among the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The
Committee expects the Department of State to use its authority under
section 498B of the Foreign Assistance Act as necessary to carry out
such programs. The Committee continues to be concerned about the plight
of the victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and recommends that up
to $6,000,000 should be made available to address ongoing humanitarian
needs in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Committee has included renewed authority
for the President to provide humanitarian assistance to the region,
notwithstanding the restrictions of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support
Act. The bill language is unchanged from previous years."

"This bill provides important funding for Armenia and Karabakh and
maintains parity in military assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan," said
Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), co-chairs of
the Armenian Caucus. "We are also pleased that economic aid to Armenia
exceeds the Administration’s request and will continue working with our
colleagues to ensure that it meets last year’s funding level of nearly
$75 million."

The bill also provides $1.8 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account
program (MCA). Armenia, based on its record of performance in key
indicators, is a recipient of MCA with a five-year $235.65 million
compact to reduce rural poverty and increase agricultural productivity.
During the mark-up, Congressman Knollenberg offered an amendment to
increase funding for this program, citing its importance and noting the
success of Armenia, including its recently held parliamentary elections.
Knollenberg stated in reference to Armenia’s performance that it was
"extremely favorable and gives Armenia a plus up for the future."

"We thank the Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) and
his colleagues for supporting provisions passed last week by the State,
Foreign Operations Subcommittee led by Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY)
and Ranking Member Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)," said Assembly Executive
Director Bryan Ardouny, who attended today’s markup on Capitol Hill. "We
will continue to work with the House and Senate Appropriations Committee
members to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia and U.S.-Karabakh relationships
and to ensure the best possible outcome for these two young
democracies."

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of
Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.

###

NR#2007-070

SIT-UP KING WILL DEMONSTRATE HIS CHARITABLE SPIRIT – AND HIS WASHBOARD ABS
Mike Boone, The Gazette

The Gazette (Montreal)
June 11, 2007 Monday
Final Edition

Late tomorrow afternoon, while many are enjoying an I-hate-Mondays
after-work libation, Best Kaya will spend a couple of happy hours
doing what he does best.

Sit-ups.

To raise money for the Park YMCA, Kaya is going to do 2,000 sit-ups
in two hours. That’s about 1,995 more than I do in two years. Sounds
gruelling, yes?

Not for the man who claims the world record. At a muscular dystrophy
telethon in Ottawa, Kaya did 75,002 sit-ups over 62 hours of the 1985
Labour Day weekend. Earlier that year, he was sponsored by the Rotary
Club (under the slogan "Sit up and be counted") and did 50,000 reps
for Easter Seals.

In 1987 and ’88, Kaya did 10,000 sit-ups a day for two weeks to raise
money for Sun Youth. The 2002 tally for Notre Dame Hospital’s Clinique
de la douleur – which treated Kaya for the aftermath of a car accident
that cost him part of his right hand – was 30,600 sit-ups in 36 hours.

This is not just a fundraising gimmick for a guy with washboard
abdominal muscles.

To combat the curse of back pain, Kaya preaches salvation through
sit-ups.

After analyzing the physiology and kinetics involved in the deceptively
simple exercise, Kaya designed the Best Sit-up Board, a patented
portable steel frame with sliding plastic pieces that allow the
up-sitter to vary leg angle in order to work six groups of muscles.

Better Living Through Sit-ups does not rival yoga or pilates as a
trendy fitness concept. And the Best Board is not selling quite as
briskly as Thighmasters.

But Kaya is living proof his system works. He is a very fit
56-year-old.

Kaya, whom I met at the Y on Friday, was born in Turkey. His full name
is Feyyaz Best Kaya, he is of Armenian extraction and speaks Aramaic –
"you know, the language they spoke in The Passion of the Christ."

He is a devout Christian who says he reads the Bible while
exercising. When I asked how he managed to focus on biblical text
while bobbing up and down at a brisk clip, Kaya said: "I know most
of the passages by heart."

His daily regimen is between 2,000 and 3,000 sit-ups – or all of
Matthew, plus a good chunk of Mark.

The gospel according to Best is that he is giving back.

"My family is in Canada," he says, "because the Armenians were nearly
exterminated in Turkey. Canada is a great country where everyone can
live together.

"I help the community because of what happened to my community."

Kaya’s commitment dovetails with the needs of the Park Y, which is
trying to raise $35,000. Most of the money, Y director Ridley Joseph
told me, will be earmarked for youth programs.

Joseph is 43 and immigrated to Montreal from Haiti in 1977. Tall,
chiselled and with a physique that rivaled the Sit-up King’s (I
was the only fat guy in the discussion), Joseph said Montreal had
the first YMCA in North America. The institution has been around,
in various locales, for 156 years.

The Park Y – greatly spiffed up since my Grade 9 class went here for
swimming lessons in 1962 – has 3,600 members. Joseph, who’s been a
YMCA employee for 12 years and on Park for five – says membership is
"growing incredibly."

No surprise. A modernized, reasonably-priced fitness facility in
proximity to the Plateau Mont Royal, Mile End and Outremont is going
to attract a young, health-conscious clientele – and at least one
sit-up specialist.

On an April night in 1982, Kaya had been out on the town with
friends. Feeling bloated by their revels, he decided that recuperation
would be helped by some exercises.

"I thought about jogging," he recalls, "but it was too cold. So I
started doing sit-ups on my mattress."

Not long thereafter, a newspaper in Aylmer, the town where he resided
after immigrating as a teenager, described the then-longhaired Kaya as
"the man with the iron stomach."

(I thought that was Rene Angelil.)

Kaya estimates he’s done

15 million sit-ups in the last 25 years. His first fundraiser was the
1984 muscular dystrophy telethon in Ottawa: 30,000 sit-ups in 33 hours,
raising $38,000.

Kaya has a plaque from the Y lauding his "great willpower, exemplary
generosity and profound community spirit … Mr. Best Kaya is an
exceptional ambassador of our association’s values."

At various times in his life, Kaya has played professional soccer,
managed construction projects, planned business start-ups and run a
human resources department. Through it all, he’s worked his abs.

"I want to do 100,000 sit-ups in 80 hours," Kaya said. "But I have
to find the right sponsor."

Tums?

Best Kaya’s sit-up marathon starts tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 in the
entrance hall of the Park Y, 5550 Park.

Loyal to writing

Yerkir.am
June 08, 2007

Varlen Aleksanian is the author of collections of poems titled `Letters
with no Address’, `Love of Days’, `The Heavy Cross’ and some others. He
is a man of endless modesty and humor, a brilliant writer, his friends
say.

Aleksanian’s 65th anniversary was recently celebrated in the National
Library of Armenia. His book titled `Before the Last Rain’ was also
presented at the Library. In his opening remarks director of the
National Library David Sargsian congratulated the author stressing the
purity of the latter’s works. Sargsian noted that Varlen Aleksanian
brought fresh poetic thinking to the world of literature in 1960’s.

The book includes Aleksanian’s poems published in his previous book as
well as a selection of poems written in the recent years. President of
the Writers’ Union of Armenia Levon Ananian believes the book shows
that Aleksanian has stayed loyal to his unique style.

Writers Tatul Bolorchian, Alis Hovhannissian, Hrachya Matevossian and
other congratulated Aleksanian expressing high appreciation of him as a
person and as a poet.

An exhibition of Aleksanian’s books, poems published in the press and
other materials was opened in the National Library. Gayane Manvelian,
Gayane Sargsian and Varlen Aleksanian himself recited poems during the
presentation.

By Gohar JULHAKIAN

ELMAR MAMMADIAROV. "AT KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV MEETING MAIN PRINCIPLES WERE
DISCUSSED, ON BASIS OF WHICH WE ARE GOING TO COME TO AGREEMENT ON
ESTABLISHING LONG-LASTING PEACE"

SAINT PETERSBURG, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. No progress was recorded at the
meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Robert Kocharian
and Ilham Aliyev, that took place in Saint Petersburg on June 9 in the
evening. Neither the Presidents, nor the Co-chairmen of OSCE Minsk
Group made an annoncement for the press after the meeting.

As informs the Radio Liberty reported, quotting the "reliable source",
during the meeting, that lasted more than three hours, the Presidents
did not manage to come to an agreement on several important issues, the
most important of which is the one of Karabakh status. The Azerbaijani
side insisted that there should not be any point on the Karabakh status
in the intermediate agreement, and the Armenian side insisted that the
mechanism, by which the referendum in Nagorno Karabakh will be held,
and the way the Karabakh status will be decided, should be mentioned in
it without fail.

Elmar Mammadiarov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, according
to the Azerbaijani media, reported only that "the main principles, on
the basis of which we are going to come to an agreement on establishing
long-lasting peace in the region, were discussed."

Putin calls US bluff with base offer
By Andrew Ward in Heiligendamm and Neil Buckley in Moscow

FT
June 8 2007 00:52

Vladimir Putin on Thursday seized the initiative in the dispute over US
plans to site anti-missile defences in central Europe by suggesting
instead a joint plan to base part of the system at a former Soviet
radar station in Azerbaijan.

The Russian leader took George W. Bush by surprise when he made the
proposal at the G8 summit in Germany following weeks of rising tensions
over the programme.

Mr Putin said he had secured agreement from Azerbaijan to use the radar
as part of a collaborative system that would protect Europe from
incoming missiles.

If Washington accepted the proposal, he would not have to carry out his
recent threat to retarget Russian missiles against Europe, Mr Putin
said.

`This will make it unnecessary for us to place our offensive complexes
along the border with Europe,’ Mr Putin told reporters, standing beside
his US counterpart.

Mr Bush described the proposal as `interesting’ and said both sides had
agreed to engage in `strategic dialogue’ to `share ideas’ over missile
defence.

Stephen Hadley, US national security adviser, said the proposal
demonstrated Russian willingness to engage in `real co-operation’ on
missile defence.

But the two sides were at odds over the potential role of the
Azerbaijan radar. Mr Putin portrayed it as an alternative to a planned
US facility in the Czech Republic that Russia opposes. But Mr Hadley
said only that Azerbaijan could make a `contribution’ to the broader
system.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a defence analyst in Moscow, said the Gabala radar
station involved in the proposal was not a suitable substitute for the
Czech Republic as it was too close to Iran ` one of the countries
Washington says its missile shield is designed to defend against. It
was also too far from the planned US interceptor base in Poland to be
viable. `The Pentagon won’t want this at all,’ he said. `The White
House will not reject it out of hand, but I don’t forecast any
agreement.’

US officials sought to portray the proposal as a breakthrough in
efforts to secure Moscow’s backing for its missile shield and a first
step towards serious negotiations about co-operation.

But it appeared highly unlikely that Washington would sacrifice its
Czech base or put a key part of its missile shield in the hands of a
former Soviet state.

Mr Putin has argued that US anti-missile equipment in the heart of
central Europe would turn the continent into a `tinderbox’. Washington
has said its proposed facilities are too close to Russia and too
limited to protect against its ballistic missiles.

Dallas Morning News , TX
June 9 2007

Classical Review: Violinists perform Shostakovich powerfully

08:57 AM CDT on Saturday, June 9, 2007

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

The new violinists keep pouring out recordings of Shostakovich’s
Violin Concerto No. 1. It seems to be the new rite of passage for any
would-be virtuoso.These two recent recordings take very different
approaches, but both are well worth hearing. I was especially
impressed by Sergey Khachatryan’s job on both the first concerto and
the much less popular second.

The young Armenian virtuoso takes a heroic approach to the Concerto
No. 1, a powerful work that in a sense dramatizes the composer’s
conflict with Stalin. The concerto had to be suppressed for years for
fear of getting Shostakovich sent to Siberia.

The outstanding sections here are the jubilant dance, at once
triumphant and sardonic, of the second movement and the enormous
passacaglia that forms the third. It’s not unusual for the second
movement to make the hairs on your neck stand on end, as happens here
– but when it also happens in the tragic, majestic variations, that’s
news.

Mr. Khachatryan has a big sound, probably exaggerated by the
microphones here. But the Orchestre National de France under Kurt
Masur is probably at least as responsible for the disc’s sense of
grandeur. Mr. Masur comes off as a very great Shostakovich conductor
indeed in this recording.

At first, Baiba Skride’s performance of the Concerto No. 1 seems far
less imposing, partly because the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
under Marek Janowski takes a subdued approach. But if you listen
carefully to all the delicate shadings in the first movement, you
realize that the Israeli violinist has a lot to say about this music.
Her delicacy does not mean a lack of emotional involvement. She and
Mr. Janowski really whip the finale into genuine excitement, too.
Maybe the conductor is of the school that insists that any musical
work, however large, should build to a single climax.

The reason that this CD is a must-have, though, is the performance of
the rare, reconstructed Janacek Violin Concerto. Mikko Franck and the
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra accompany Ms. Skride in this piece. It
has had a handful of previous recordings, but this one really brings
it to life.

Shostakovich
Grade:A
Violin Concertos 1 & 2. Sergey Khachatryan (Naive)

Shostakovich, Janacek
Grade: A-
Violin Concertos. Baiba Skride (Sony Classics)

LARGE NUMBER OF 720-MM DIAMETER PIPES IMPORTED FROM CHELYABINSK INTO YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Jun 08 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to the import of a
large number of pipes with the diameter of 720 mm for the extension of
Armenia’s gas transporting network were discussed in the administrative
building of ArmRusgazprom CJSC with the participation of suppliers
and forwarding agents.

According to deputy director of ArmRusgazprom, 85 wagons of cargo –
1,700 tons of pipes have been transported and stored in Armenia. It
is envisaged to import 26 thousand tons of pipes by late 2007. In
accordance with the schedule envisaged by the agreement, the monthly
volume of supply will make 3 thousand tons or about 210 wagons.

Executive director of the Chelyabinsk pipe plant Pavel Pelyugin said
that their production meets international standards and is exported
to many countries, while Armenia is the only country of Transcaucasia
to order such a large quantity of pipes.

"WE WILL RETURN NO TERRITORIES"

A1+
[06:24 pm] 07 June, 2007

Today members of "Peace" civil initiative handed over a protest
memorandum to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the RA Prime Minister
Serge Sargsyan and the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan
Oskanyan. A small incident took place between the police and the
demonstrators. After the incident the demonstrators moved to the
building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then to the Government
building.

The reason of the action was the announcements of the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chairs before the forthcoming meeting of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani Presidents in St Petersburg. "The Armenian nation
will never accept any of the mediators’ proposals which presuppose
that Armenia will be connected with Karabakh with a corridor. The
Armenians will never accept that the former region of Aghdam, which
is of strategic importance, and, particularly, the bank of Araks may
be returned to Azerbaijan", was said in the memorandum.

The participants of the action demanded to reveal the content of the
disputed questions and "stop misleading the Armenian nation".

"They should answer if they have consciousness, if they do not have it
they will carry out their preferable project", said Toros Sefilyan,
head of the Shushi Battalion and brother of Zhirayr Sefilyan who is
in the isolation cell of the National Security Service. Khachatur
Vardanyan, Head of the Department for Regional Administration
and Local Self-Governance, met the demonstrators in front of the
Government building and took the responsibility of handing over the
two letters to Serge Sargsayan. One of the letters concerned the
liberated territories, the other one – to the case of Zhirayr Sefilyan.

The demonstrators demanded releasing Zhirayr Sefilyan and Vardan
Malkhasyan, who were detained in December last year for the appeals
to fail the constitutional order. The demonstrators hoped that their
problems would be positively solved.

Members of a number of organisations participated in the demonstration
today. Among them there was "Alliance" Civil Initiative, "Mitq"
analytical centre, members of "Armenian volunteers’ unite", "Protection
of liberated territories" social imitatives and others.

ARMENIA: ANGER AT DEATH IN POLICE CUSTODY
By Gayane Mkrtchian and Arpi Harutyunian in Yerevan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
June 7 2007

Mysterious death of witness puts spotlight on culture of police
violence.

Haik Melkumian, a 27-year-old barman from Yerevan, came home badly
beaten and bruised after a spell in a police cell. He was not a
suspect – he just happened to have witnessed a crime.

"They just beat me for 15 or 20 minutes," said Melkumian, recalling
what happened to him when he was held in custody for two days on May
10 and 11. "The blows came continuously, they threw me on the floor and
kept kicking me, and I could barely protect my head with my hands. They
kept saying, ‘Tell us who shot him’, and went on beating me. They
didn’t allow me water or to go to the toilet on the first day."

The incident Melkumian witnessed took place on May 9 at his workplace,
the Pandok restaurant on the outskirts of Yerevan. A fight broke out,
and ended in the shooting of a controversial underworld figure named
Stepan Vardanian.

A murder enquiry was launched the same day.

Melkumian thought that as a witness, he would answer some questions
at the police station and would then be allowed to go home.

"They didn’t give me a chance to say anything, they just beat me and
swore at me, trying to get me to testify and give names. It’s true
I witnessed the incident, but I didn’t have anything more to tell them.

I told them everything I knew a thousand times, and I just wanted
them to stop beating me."

Waitress Marine Grigorian, 35, described what happened when she was
called in to the Shengavit district police department for questioning
about the shooting.

"When I asked for water, they told me go and drink it from the
lavatory bowl. They called me bad names, and said I knew everything
and should tell them," she said. "I asked to go to the toilet and they
said roughly, ‘You can just wet yourself’. I covered my ears with my
hands so as not to hear them use terrible swear words against me."

She and Melkumian at least managed to get out of police custody
alive. The owner of the restaurant, Levon Gulian, was not so lucky.

On May 12, Gulian, a 31-year-old father of two, died in the Armenian
police’s central department for criminal investigations, under
unexplained circumstances. He too had been summoned on May 10

According to an official police statement, during the interrogation,
Gulian asked a policeman for some water, and while the officer was
out of the room, he tried to escape through the window, but slipped
and fell from the second floor, and died of his injuries.

A preliminary investigation is being carried out by the Yerevan Public
Prosecutor’s office.

Gulian’s relatives claim that on May 12, Hovik Tamamian, first deputy
head of Armenia’s Criminal Investigation Department, took Gulian by
car from the Shengavit local police station to the national police
department.

IWPR was unable to reach Tamamian for a comment, but a statement
from the police rejected suggestions that he had anything to do with
Gulian’s death.

Police spokesman Sayat Shirinian called on the media "not to inflame
passions, to refrain from biased opinions and all kinds of speculation,
all the more so because the police are interested in a definitive
clarification of the objective circumstances".

However, despite official denials, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman,
local human rights organisations and lawyers, as well as Gulian’s
relatives and friends, all believe he was beaten and then thrown out
of the window.

"Levon went to the police of his own accord, so why should he try
to escape?" said his wife, Jemma Gulian. "It’s absolutely clear to
us that the police officers are to blame for Levon’s death. He was
threatened in the police room, beaten and then killed by being thrown
out of the window."

Human rights ombudsman Armen Harutyunian said, "The initial versions
saying that Levon committed suicide by jumping from the second floor
are to be condemned. Just imagine what kind of state a person who
came to the police voluntarily would have to have been driven to in
order that they would forced to jump from the second floor."

Relatives who saw Gulian after the two days he spent at the Shengavit
police station say he told them he had been beaten constantly by
police demanding that he name Stepan Vardanian’s killer. Gulian
told his interrogators that he saw the murder but did not know
the assassin. When he asked for an attorney to be present at the
interrogation, police told him they would beat the lawyer as well.

On May 13, the three lawyers dealing with Levon Gulian’s case –
Artur Grigorian, Narine and Ruben Rshtuni – all withdraw from the case.

Gulian’s relatives believe the lawyers came under pressure.

Levon’s sister Lilit Gulian says Artur Grigorian was present at the
autopsy and reported that the dead man’s head was completely crushed,
his ribs bore signs of violence, the shoulder was broken, his whole
body was mutilated and the soles of his feet were bruised.

This contradicts the findings of the officially-sanctioned forensic
medical examination.

The issue of police brutality in Armenia has raised international
concern before now. The International Helsinki Federation for Human
Rights has said that "torture and ill-treatment by the police remain
serious problems".

Armenia has signed both the United Nations Convention against Torture
and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, and monitors
have been appointed by the Ministry of Justice to track compliance
with these commitments. However, there has not been a single public
report on the issue.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture visits Armenia
every year, and its annual reports continue to express about the
behaviour of the police.

"They keep demanding that the torturers be punished, but it’s a voice
crying in the wilderness," said Avetik Ishkhanian, head of the Helsinki
Committee of Armenia.

The police routinely deny that there is a problem. "It’s absolutely
out of the question that any acts of violence like this could occur
in police stations," said Armen Malkhasian, lawyer for the Yerevan
city police department.

Gulian’s death is only the latest in a series of acts of violence of
which the police stand accused.

Opposition activist Grisha Virabian was so badly beaten by police
in 2004 that he had to have an operation and have one testicle
surgically removed.

"I was immediately attacked in the police station, they started to
kick me. I just begged not to hit below the belt, I couldn’t stand
that. But they kept beating me, they swore and kicked me in the ribs
and testicles," Virabian told IWPR.

"If someone had been punished in the Virabian case, there would be
no more cases like Gulian’s," said Larisa Alaverdian, a prominent
human rights activist and former ombudsman. "Society must finally
start practicing the principle of punishing the guilty."

Ombudsman Ishkhanian thinks there are two reasons for the climate of
impunity in the police force.

""First, the issue has political ramifications," he said. "Because
the Armenian authorities are heavily reliant on the law-enforcement
agencies, the police are a major pillar of support for them.

"Another reason is lack of professionalism. In Soviet times, a frank
confession was traditionally regarded as the best form of testimony;
in other words they go for the easy option instead of searching for
other evidence. In the end, there is impunity because the police
enjoy political support."

Gayane Mkrtchian and Arpi Harutyunian are correspondents for
ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan and members of IWPR’s Cross-Caucasus
Journalism Network.