Levon Martirosyan: Surik Khachatryan is an intellectual (video)
Opposition lawmaker Gagik Jhangiryan is not surprised that the authorities in Armenia have been unable to detain [in 12 days] Tigran Khachatryan, the notorious son of Syunik Marz Governor who was involved in a May 2 incident outside the southeastern town of Goris. Republican MPs are reluctant to answer any question concerning Tigran Khachatryan’s ‘sudden disappearance’ from the sight of law enforcement agencies. “We are not aware of it,” says Gagik Melikyan, Secretary of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). HHK lawmaker Hovhannes Sahakyan says the matter closed for him and refuses to want to comment on it. Hovhannes Sahakyan, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, is aware that Tigran Khachatryan is put on the wanted list. “Anyway, I would not like to shift the issue to the political domain,” he said. “As is the public, so are the government and opposition,” said Republican Levon Martirosyan. He does not feel bad that he represents the same political team together with Syunik Governor Surik Khachatryan. “I have communicated with that man [Surik Khachatryan] on many occasions and I find that he is an intellectual.” In reply to our question what he meant by saying ‘intellectual’ and whether he meant Khachatryan’s intellectual capacity, Mr Martirosyan said he did. Zaruhi Postanjyan, a member of the opposition Heritage Party, knew from the very beginning that the government would not ‘touch’ Syunik governor’s son. “Serzh Sargsyan personally announced that he usually does whatever he wants,” she reminded. “Do not expect any legal assessment to the incident otherwise Surik Khachatryan would have been imprisoned for killing Avetik Budaghyan [the former mayoral candidate of Goris],” Zaruhi Postanjyan said. “Khachatryan is simply a tool in the hands of Serzh Sargsyan. Any criminal is a tool in the hands of acting criminal government, therefore, they do not refuse the services of Syunik governor.” Tigran Khachatryan was reportedly among several dozen men who beat up and seriously injured brothers Harut and Mushegh Zakaryan outside Goris on May 2. Harut lost vision in one eye while his elder brother Mushegh suffered a broken nose. The brothers claimed that the attackers were led by the 22-year-old Tigran Khachatryan.
