Dzianis Dziuba, a belsat.eu photojournalist, has visited the second largest city in Armenia and tried to find out whether Gyumri came to life after the recent tragedy.
On January, 12 six members of the Avetisyan family—including a two-year-old girl—were murdered in the Armenian city of Gyumri. The six-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan, the sole member of the Avetisyan family to survive, received emergency treatment. Valeriy Permyakov, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian Military Base located in the city, confessed to the crime.
Thousands of people staged protests last Thursday in the Arminian capital of Yerevan and in Gyumri, the country’s second largest city, where the shootings took place, demanding the Permyakov’s handover. The runaway soldier is to stand trial in Armenia, the Prosecutor General promised. But the murderer is still at the Russian base under protection of Russian soldiers.
Flying to Armenia, I am sitting next to Asia, who quit teaching and left fot Moscow after the USSR had collapsed, and Hamlet, who runs a confectionery business in Yerevan. The girl is in the picture, the man knows a little about the murder as he was on a business trip. The both are deeply shocked but say there is no harm about Russian military bases in Armenia: “Our country is small, we are destined to have such a trustee”.
“We do not care whose bases are located here – Russia’s or NATO’s ones. What really matters is someone who could guarantee our security,” Gyumri marketers say. According to the international agreements signed in 1992 and 1995 the 102nd Russian military base was deployed in the territory of Armenia. The Russian military are expected to be be present in the base till 2049.
Newsstands have just been open; all the newspapers are in Armenian. I ask a seller what is being reported about.
– Everything is OK!
– Could you please tell…
– There are not any ethnic conflicts!
– What about demands to deliver the murderer?
– He has been grabbed, now it’s OK
– And people who took to the streets…
– They really did, but now all is quiet.
Dozens of Gyumri residents say they have always treated Russian soldiers as ‘defenders’ and asked ‘not to mix this murder with politics’.
I am passing by a group of young men near the Drama theatre, one of them asks: “Are you Russian?” – No, I am from …” Hardly had I finished when they started to shout in chorus: “We like Russians very much! There is no hostility here, and will never be!”“We know why you have come here,” they say pointing at my camera.
I explain to them that Russian bases are deployed in my native country as well and our citizens are concerned over the tragic incident in Armenia. But the blame is to be put on Valeriy Permyakov, not on all Russians, they say.
Hamlet, a seller at the market, says the family fell victim because they might have witnessed something. But in this case the fact that two kids were killed is embarrassing: they could not tell against anyone.
Passer-by Ruben believes that the murderer got acquainted with his victims before the tragedy. “How will you react if Russia sticks to its own Constitution and tries Permyakov in its territory?” I ask him. “He must stand trial here. The crime was committed here. We will fight this piece out – we have our own law, we are an independent country.”
Valeriy Permyakov, a conscript from Russia’s Chita region, has already confessed to the crime. An Armenian lawyer who were to have defended him in court broke down and quit after the soldier told about how he was stabbing kids.
It is rumoured that Permyakov asked to be sent to Gyumri himself; he was recruited by Turkish special services, local residents say.
Some people have found information on Permyakov’s mental disease on the Internet. Robert, a bread seller, questions this version. “Who would take a looney to the army and give arms to him???” He remembers an incident of 1999, when two soldiers came running to a local market and opened fire. Five persons were killed. Excusing their act by the state of alcohol intoxication, Armenia swallowed it. The number of Armenians serving in the base exceeded that of Russians; Armenian senior conscripts abused and humiliated their Russian ‘comrade-in-arms’, and the latter decided to revenge, the locals state. “They appeared before court here, but then were extradited to Russia.”
But not all the residents can recollect the incident. For many years we have been living close to this base and there have been no conflicts. “The only thing we are seeking now is the unbiased investigation and [Permyakov’s] completing sentence here, in Armenia. I do not believe he did it himself. It is more than likely that somebody helped him. All [members of the Avetisyan family] were killed in their beds. They would have woken up after the first shoot,” Vagen says.
“Russians help us to protect our 280-kilometre border with Turkey. We would never deal with it ourselves: the disparity is overwhelming. Turkey’s population reaches 70 mln. We are only 3 mln. But for Russia’s protection we would be destroyed in a day. Surrounded by Muslim states we need a trustee – Russia, U.S. or China – it does not matter. If you ask me, I would be glad to welcome France’s Foreign Legion or Americans: their salaries are ten times as big as Russian contractors’. They could go out to the city and leave money in our shops and restaurants,” Levon Mglamyan, a NGO head, says.
Money is really a sensitive topic as far as the 102nd military base is concerned. It does not cost Russia a penny. “Moreover, the Armenian side maintains them and bears their utility charges. We have slave mentality. For example, China is ready to give out millions for their base here,” Levon stresses.
According to Satenik, a psychologist from Gyumri, thousands of people came to the Russian consulate on January, 15 as they wanted to know the real motive of the criminal: “They are thirsty for justice in order not to fear to live in this city.”
It seems that fear has already gripped Gyumri – there are fewer people in the streets, the locals have started to lock doors and latch gates. Gyumri used to be an open city before.
Levon’s friends are expecting a baby, a mum-to-be has just been taken to maternity hospital. “You will see a new life in Gyumri, not only death,” he says.
After the earthquake in 1988 Australians built the maternity hospital in Gyumri, and there are a lot of shields with inscriptions in English. But a baby is still not coming we decide to get back home, drink coffee and wait for a call from hospital.
“From the January, 3 on the Azerbaijani have violated the agreement on a ceasefire in Nagorny Karabakh 300 times.” We are watching TV. There are two main topics: Azerbaijani’s shooting at Armenians and Seryozha Avetisyan’s fight for life. My conversation partners are indignant at the statement by ex-Mayor of Gyumri: he wishes to adopt the infant. He is just a populist – every Armenian family is ready to bring the boy up, they say.
According to news presenters, Russia’s Putin phoned Armenian President Serge Sargsyan and expressed readiness to send his own plane and take the baby to Russia for treatment. Putin’s reaction proves that Russia got scared, Levon says. Russia respects us, he stressed.
We come back to the hospital. An hour later a phone rings. Relatives hug a fresh-baked father, but a grandfather looks happiest. “I am the richest man on Earth,” he repeats.
I am invited to a festive dinner; they give me the place of honour. At first I am a bit constrained because too much attention is paid to me, but then they start raising toasts to children. They also ask me to come tomorrow to continue celebration, but …
I am trying to see the Mayor and Russian council, but taking cue from the commanders of the military base, the city officials have cut off communication with mass media.
At last, I manage to meet with Lilit Makaryan, press secretary of Samvel Balasanyan, Mayor of Gyumri. A young and approachable woman says that she is ‘aware of the Mayor’s stand on the latest developments and will be trying to get it across to people’. ‘A Russian base is part of our city,’ ‘Russian soldiers have been present here over centuries’, ‘this crime should not have negative influence on the relations of our people’ – all that she says I have already heard in the streets of Gyumri. “The City Council wants to relax tension and prevent provocative acts; it is set to demand to hand over the criminal to Armenian court,” she adds.
Armenia, which has recently joined the Eurasian Economic Union, should love Russia because it is actually is the state of the economic blockade due to closed borders with two neighbouring countries. But ordinary Armenians’ affection to Russia seems to be sincere: sticking to Orthodox brother seems to be the only thing to do for a Christian country in a Muslim region.
Tomorrow the Armenian authorities are facing one more test: the six-month-old Serge Avetisyan, the sole member of the Avetisyan family to survive the January, 12 tragedy, died on Monday. Armenia’s health ministry reported that local and international specialists worked tirelessly to save the infant, but he developed cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal failure. He will be buried on January, 21.
Dzianis Dziuba, Gyumri
