Gyumri murder should not provoke anti-Russian moods – opinions

A dreadful murder like the one committed today in Gyumri should admit of no borders at all, an Armenian lawmaker has said, warning against an anti-Russian hysteria.

“While writing anything about the person who took six sleeping innocent lives,  including two children’s, one should not concentrate on his being a Russian or a Russian serviceman. It is necessary to uncover all the details, as well as the reason behind the spiteful crime,” Tevan Poghosyan, a member of the opposition Heritage faction in parliament, told Tert.am.

Not ruling out the possibility of domestic factors, Poghosyan called for investigating every detail before making a final conclusion. He stressed the importance of quick efforts by law enforcers towards resolving the crime.

Commenting on the incident, Lilit Galstyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D) said she also agrees that a heinous crime as that should recognize  no geography.

“What happened in Gyumri is dreadful, unimaginable and beyond the boundaries of human morals … Words are powerless to describe the incident. The questions vary in number, including how the wild fanatic could have used a weapon and what disciplinary and regulatory rules dominated the given military unit that makes such a beastly characterization possible. Are these the qualities that govern the military base’s functions? In what atmosphere of permissiveness did this evil evolve? … Questions and question that require a thorough investigation. I condole with everybody, sharing their grief and anger,” said the ARF-D bureau member, adding that she believes in the possibility of an unbiased probe.

Avetik Ishkanyan, a human rights activist who heads the Helsinki Committee NGO, did not rule out the possibility of anti-Russian moods. But he said such a scenario does not necessary imply an objective evaluation. “In my personal opinion, it should not provoke anti-Russian moods,” he told our correspondent.

“Perhaps, there are people who would wish to pursue this direction, but I cannot say anything clearly. This tragedy should not become a cause of anti-Russian acts, and I personally do not support that. What I support is protection by the Armenian people of their own dignity, with their own independence, without any hostility with Russia and without joining the EEU [Eurasian Economic Union].”

Vahan Tumasyan, the president of the Gyumri-based NGO Shirak Center, described anti-nationalist moods as an attempt to fish in troubled waters. As a fresh example, he cited the recent developments in France. 

“We see what happened in a developed, democratic country like France, with one terrorist act following another. Whoever dislikes the Russians will now start speculating that they do this because we have given them weapons. It is now important for the authorities and the police to act clearly and promptly,” he said, expressing his dissatisfaction with the official reports.

Tumasyan warned against allowing trials of similar crimes on the territory of Russia.

“That’s what explains the main speculation. It is necessary to at least conduct an open hearing to enable people to see that a criminal did receive an appropriate punishment regardless of nationality. In the previous cases, if you remember, the [right to hold] the trial was transferred to Russia, and many believe that they [the culprits] did not incur a worthy punishment,” he added.

Tumasyan said he thinks that the suspect, who served in the Russian military base, could have been theoretically enlisted from any foreign country. “They now say he was a month’s conscript who was given a self-firing gun with such a quantity of bullets. So you can never know what could have been there,” he said, calling for a high degree of preparedness by the state.

Tumasyan said he doesn’t understand why there aren’t specially trained detachments in the city which hosts a big Russian military base. “They probably forget that the multi-thousand military base is stationed in Gyumri,” he added.