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Armenia: Aftermath of a Massacre
Posted by: Thomas de Waal
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
For two weeks, Armenians have had time for only one issue: the horrible
murder of a whole family in the town of Gyumri and outrage at the way
politicians have dealt with it.
At first it was just a tragic murder. On January 12, a soldier broke out of
Russia's 102 military base in Armenia's second city of Gyumri and, for
reasons that are still unexplained, made his way to a family house in the
middle of the city. He broke in and shot and killed six members of the
Avetisian family, including a two-year-old girl. Then he fled on foot and
was detained several hours later near the Armenian-Turkish border.
[image: De Waal is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment,
specializing primarily in the South Caucasus region comprising Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia and their breakaway territories as well as the
wider Black Sea region.]Thomas de Waal
Senior Associate
Russia and Eurasia Program
The whole of Armenia followed agonizing health bulletins on the seventh
member of the family, a six-month-old baby boy whom the soldier had stabbed
with his bayonet. A week later, the boy too died of his wounds.
By then, the alleged murderer, a 19-year-old named Valery Permyakov, was in
custody at the Russian military base and the subject of a growing political
row.
The public reacted much more quickly to the tragedy than did either
Armenian or Russian politicians. On the day of the family funeral, angry
crowds demonstrated
outside
the Russian consulate in Gyumri demanding that the soldier be handed over
to the Armenian authorities. At least 14 people were injured as the police
beat back the demonstrators.
The protesters voiced anger not just with the Russians but with their own
leaders. On the fourth day after the murders, a veterans' group criticized
both
President Serzh Sargsyan and the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Karekin II for not speaking in public about the killings.
We can presume that there were many private Armenian-Russian official
conversations about what should be done with the alleged killer. Even
though the crime had been committed against Armenian victims on Armenian
soil, Russian officials displayed an amazing stubbornness in insisting that
he should be tried under Russian law.
In the first few days after the killings, the Russian media barely
mentioned them. When Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov
eventually spoke
on
the issue, he said that the trial would be held in a Russian military
court. When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked
about the
killings at a press conference on January 21, he condemned them in the
strongest terms but also stirred up resentment by talking about a
"provocation" by "those willing to use this tragedy to obtain some
geopolitical advantages," implying that the demonstrators were working to a
Western agenda.
Russia is Armenia's economic and political patron and sole provider of
foreign security. On January 1, Armenia entered the Russian-led Eurasian
Union. The Gyumri base, home to 4,000 soldiers and their families, is also
the mainstay of the local economy. In 2010 its lease was extended until
2044.
But that does not mean the relationship is an easy one. Periodically
Armenian resentment at Moscow's perceived high-handedness and colonial
mentality boils over. That was the case in 1988, the year of Armenia's
anti-Soviet revolt, when Soviet troops opened fire on Armenian nationalist
demonstrators at Zvartnots airport.
On the Armenian side, the Russian alliance is in large part a forced
marriage which Armenia has entered in order to maintain military parity in
the Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.
Currently none of the political elite questions it. The three political
parties associated with the current president and his two predecessors--the
Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress--all
swear loyalty to Moscow. The relationship deepened last year with the
appointment of a new prime minister in the oligarch mold, Hovik Abrahamian.
In October a prominent American-Armenian columnist
wrote
that the close relationship with Russia was founded on "existential
strategic and economic realities" and that it was pointless to criticize
Armenia's joining of the Eurasian Union.
The protests show that the Armenian public has a much broader spectrum of
views than do their political leaders. The political fallout of the
horrible Gyumri massacre will not result in a strategic orientation away
from Russia. But it will further hollow out public support for President
Sargsyan and his government.
http://carnegie.ru/eurasiaoutlook/?fa=58848&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonva3NZKXonjHpfsX6 7e8uXaag38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIERMV0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7 XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Posted by: Thomas de Waal
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
For two weeks, Armenians have had time for only one issue: the horrible
murder of a whole family in the town of Gyumri and outrage at the way
politicians have dealt with it.
At first it was just a tragic murder. On January 12, a soldier broke out of
Russia's 102 military base in Armenia's second city of Gyumri and, for
reasons that are still unexplained, made his way to a family house in the
middle of the city. He broke in and shot and killed six members of the
Avetisian family, including a two-year-old girl. Then he fled on foot and
was detained several hours later near the Armenian-Turkish border.
[image: De Waal is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment,
specializing primarily in the South Caucasus region comprising Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia and their breakaway territories as well as the
wider Black Sea region.]Thomas de Waal
Senior Associate
Russia and Eurasia Program
The whole of Armenia followed agonizing health bulletins on the seventh
member of the family, a six-month-old baby boy whom the soldier had stabbed
with his bayonet. A week later, the boy too died of his wounds.
By then, the alleged murderer, a 19-year-old named Valery Permyakov, was in
custody at the Russian military base and the subject of a growing political
row.
The public reacted much more quickly to the tragedy than did either
Armenian or Russian politicians. On the day of the family funeral, angry
crowds demonstrated
outside
the Russian consulate in Gyumri demanding that the soldier be handed over
to the Armenian authorities. At least 14 people were injured as the police
beat back the demonstrators.
The protesters voiced anger not just with the Russians but with their own
leaders. On the fourth day after the murders, a veterans' group criticized
both
President Serzh Sargsyan and the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Karekin II for not speaking in public about the killings.
We can presume that there were many private Armenian-Russian official
conversations about what should be done with the alleged killer. Even
though the crime had been committed against Armenian victims on Armenian
soil, Russian officials displayed an amazing stubbornness in insisting that
he should be tried under Russian law.
In the first few days after the killings, the Russian media barely
mentioned them. When Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov
eventually spoke
on
the issue, he said that the trial would be held in a Russian military
court. When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked
about the
killings at a press conference on January 21, he condemned them in the
strongest terms but also stirred up resentment by talking about a
"provocation" by "those willing to use this tragedy to obtain some
geopolitical advantages," implying that the demonstrators were working to a
Western agenda.
Russia is Armenia's economic and political patron and sole provider of
foreign security. On January 1, Armenia entered the Russian-led Eurasian
Union. The Gyumri base, home to 4,000 soldiers and their families, is also
the mainstay of the local economy. In 2010 its lease was extended until
2044.
But that does not mean the relationship is an easy one. Periodically
Armenian resentment at Moscow's perceived high-handedness and colonial
mentality boils over. That was the case in 1988, the year of Armenia's
anti-Soviet revolt, when Soviet troops opened fire on Armenian nationalist
demonstrators at Zvartnots airport.
On the Armenian side, the Russian alliance is in large part a forced
marriage which Armenia has entered in order to maintain military parity in
the Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.
Currently none of the political elite questions it. The three political
parties associated with the current president and his two predecessors--the
Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress--all
swear loyalty to Moscow. The relationship deepened last year with the
appointment of a new prime minister in the oligarch mold, Hovik Abrahamian.
In October a prominent American-Armenian columnist
wrote
that the close relationship with Russia was founded on "existential
strategic and economic realities" and that it was pointless to criticize
Armenia's joining of the Eurasian Union.
The protests show that the Armenian public has a much broader spectrum of
views than do their political leaders. The political fallout of the
horrible Gyumri massacre will not result in a strategic orientation away
from Russia. But it will further hollow out public support for President
Sargsyan and his government.
http://carnegie.ru/eurasiaoutlook/?fa=58848&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonva3NZKXonjHpfsX6 7e8uXaag38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIERMV0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7 XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress