Spartak Ghukasyan Detained
Following on from the 20 May shootout in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri, RFE/RL reports that one of those involved — Spartak Ghukasian, the notorious son of the city’s controversial Mayor — has handed himself in after two months on the run. The shootout has gained particular notoriety given the death of a young boy at the same time as the incident. Apparently killed by an explosive device, the police still maintain that there is no connection between the two incidents.
Ghukasian Jr. turned himself in the day after his controversial father was summoned to a meeting in Yerevan with Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian. A newspaper report on Friday said the Gyumri mayor, who has claimed to be unaware of his son’s whereabouts, was “offered” to hand over the suspect to law-enforcement authorities within 24 hours. He was reportedly received by President Robert Kocharian earlier this week.
[…]
In an earlier televised interview, Ghukasian vehemently denied Spartak’s involvement in the gunfight that left at least two people wounded. He accused the media and his rivals of discrediting his family by implicating it in other instances of violence reported in Gyumri in recent years. He also rejected mounting calls for his resignation.
The flamboyant mayor, who is a senior member of the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), was seriously wounded in a mysterious drive-by shooting that killed three of his bodyguards about last April.
The shootout coincided with the May 20 disappearance of a 12-year-old boy whose decomposed body was found in an abandoned Gyumri shack a week ago. Many local residents suspect that Robert Simonian may have been hit by a stray bullet or run over by one of the cars involved in the shootout.
Investigators have effectively dismissed this theory, saying that Simonian most probably died as a result of playing with a hand grenade or another explosive device.
Residents of neighboring houses did not report hearing any explosions on May 20, however. Many also wonder how the police failed to stumble on Simonian’s corpse when they scoured the entire shanty town with sniffer dogs in the days that followed his disappearance.
The prosecutors have said the precise cause of the boy’s death will be established by a more meticulous forensic examination. According to Truzian, the examination is still not complete.
Anyway, I still don’t buy the official line that the boy’s death was coincidental and I’m also somewhat disappointed to see that no other blogger apart from Garo (aka Christian Garbis) at Notes from Hairenik and myself covered or offered commentary on this disturbing story. If the two incidents are connected — something which most people I’ve spoken to believe — then this is really one of the most appalling crimes I’ve heard about in Armenia in nearly nine years of being here.
The RFE/RL update is here.
So Spartak wasn’t in France then, as rumors had it.
As for the boy, that is indeed absolutely sickening. And no one seems to be in a hurry to investigate what happened, how the boy ended up in the shed, whether he was killed there by the hand grenade or whether he was already dead before and they (whoever they are) tried to erase evidence or traces of the real cause of death.
Comment by Myrthe — July 21, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
As far as I know (I’m not sure) there was no grenade explosion during that gunfight.
Perhaps you remember if there was ANY report about use of explosives there?
From the other side my classmate in 1996 have lost 2 fingers while playing with explosive material (don’t know how it is called on English - in Russian it is аммонал, something like TNT ).
But anyway - as far as a look for the facts - there’s no proof, besides rumors, that this poor kid was murdered.
BTW Some time ago I’ve put online an interview with Vardan Ghukasyan, he gave to Shant TV. It is really amazing - download it here (http://ruben.muradyan.googlepages.com/).
Comment by uzogh — July 22, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
No report at all and nobody living close where the kid was apparently killed by a hand grenade or other device heard an explosion. Add to that the failure of police to find his body in a sweep of the area following his disappearance and this whole incident becomes very alarming indeed.
Basically, this is the situation we’re in.
Fact: A shootout occurred in Gyumri.
Fact: A child out playing at the time of the shootout went missing.
Fact: His body was later found in an abandoned building although police did not find it in an earlier sweep of the area.
Fact: The police say it looks as though the boy died as a result of some type of military explosive.
Fact: People living in the area say they did not hear any explosion on the day of the shootout.
So, this is why it doesn’t take much logic to investigate one possibility. That is, the boy was inadvertently killed during the shootout, his body was moved, and the grenade explanation is possibly meant to cover up the original cause of death.
(For example, I’d like to know how severe the wounds are on the boy’s body and if they are enough to cover up something like a bullet entry wound).
Sure, it’s just one possibility, but given the facts presented, one that should be high on the list of things to look into by the police. However, from what I understand, they have not.
I’m told by one prominent journalist here that the boy’s fingerprints are nowhere to be found in the abandoned home. He says the police explain this by saying the child was wearing gloves. Sorry, sounds very dodgy to me if true.
Still, it also indicates one other reality. When high ranking officials or their relatives are involved in serious crimes in Armenia, nobody trusts the police to investigate the matter.
Alarming. Very alarming, indeed, and I’m told people in Gyumri are too scared to speak on the matter. Of course, there could be other reasons, but one thing is for sure.
It is up to the police to properly investigate this boy’s disappearance and death in a fully open and transparent manner.
Comment by Onnik — July 22, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
The video is amazing? In what sense, I wonder? I’d call it rather impressive for Ghukasyan gave a great performance to fool everyone. I’d think he’s a saint if not someone from Gyumri who was watching the program along with me and didn’t stop calling him “liar…liar…assassinator” during the whole show. Not forgetting to mention God’s name in every sentence, Ghukasyan assured that his son and he would never touch even a fly, whereas my acquaintance told me rather interesting things; how her relative’s family was in a conflict with Ghukasyan and had to leave Gyumri and how later the whole family was killed in Russia, how many people disappeared from Gyumri that way and though everyone knows who is to be blamed, people are frightened and no one dares utter a word against him for they know that they may be subjected to disappearance one day. Or how his home is like a palace while even the roads in Gyumri are in a ramshackle yet. Or how people literally loath from him, his son and their gang. Yeah…yeah…those are simply rumors…
And was a proper investigation carried out in Gyumri so far? As if we don’t know that in Armenia cases are instituted and closed according to the arbitraries of the authorities in charge and not the law. Don’t expect people in Gyumri to speak out, therefore everything will remain as assumptions only.
So, I assume in a case like this we should probably “thank” them for not digging the boy’s body somewhere deep and inventing the story with explosion. Sad.
Comment by Zara — July 22, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
There’s some discussion on this story over at The Armenian Observer.
Comment by Onnik — July 24, 2007 @ 6:40 pm
Onnik - just to clarify somethings.
Fact: The shootout happened in Teryan street.
Fact: The boy was playing out/had left his house near School #15 (Kutaisyan str.) at the time of shootout.
Fact: The distance between Teryan street and Leningradyan street is about 7-8 kilometers. The two locations are almost at the opposite ends of Gyumri.
Fact: There were no explosions at the place of shootout.
Fact: A lot of people at the helm of Government in Armenia are after Vardan Ghukasyan, and if the shootout indeed had any relation with the child’s death, they would have made sure to exploit this possibility of putting the Gyumri mayor against the wall.
I really don’t see a distinct connection between the shootout and the death of the child and the shootings. Gyumri is a small town, but not that small, and tragic coincidences may happen. Still, I’m totally frustrated about both events. I am sure, that there should be public action to impeach the Gyumri mayor and put all his criminal family to jail - for all and everything he has done so far. In fact, that idiot should have been put to jail long ago.
Comment by Observer — July 24, 2007 @ 6:53 pm
Like I said, it would be normal to cover this story and I have to question why there are those who are not covering this and why it also took you so long before you added your commentary on the matter. This is not normal and would have constituted an important post. As I said, the two events ARE linked because they happened on the same day and any information to either confirm or deny suspicions that the connection is more direct and that the boy might have died as a result of the incident SHOULD BE raised.
As for where all this happened, you could also have made a post and included a map. For example, I know nothing about where Kutaisyan Street or Leningradyan Street is and this is the first time I’ve heard mention of those streets, especially as the A1 Plus report mentions only Yesayan Street. Given that a black Hummer was also discovered at Avtokayan 104/118 I’d like to know where that is as another suspicion is that the boy might have been killed away from the scene by a speeding vehicle before his body was dumped back close to where he lived.
Anyway, I just don’t get it. Despite coming from Gyumri where the death of a boy as a result of a shoot out or an explosive device is bad enough and should be blogged about either way, you waited until now to offer your opinion that probably the two incidents are not linked? Regardless, there are in fact three scenarios that need to be examined.
i) that the boy was killed by a stray bullet
ii) that the boy was run over
iii) that the boy died after playing with an explosive device in an abandoned house
Incidentally, those following this case seem to consider that if one of the first two possibilities happened, the place of the boy’s death and where he was discovered are not necessarily the same, especially as I’m told the boy’s fingerprints are not in the house and the police missed finding him when they searched the area earlier.
Likewise, just as you say there was no reporting of any explosion during the shootout, nor has anyone reported that there was an explosion heard where he was found. If there had been, no doubt it wouldn’t have taken a month to discover his body. Of course, I don’t know the area around where he was found, so seeing as you probably do, perhaps you can tell us how close nearby homes would be and so on, and whether such an explosion would have been heard.
Like I said, this story is horrific and not least because nobody can be bothered to examine it properly — including the police — and I say again, I’m disappointed that it’s taken you so long to even comment on this case and offer the information that you have which, in my opinion, could and should have been made available in a blog post. Thanks for doing so now, but I would like to hear from you regarding where Yesayan Street and Avtokayan 104/118 is is.
The shootout was not in one static location and from what I gather, vehicles fled the scene leading some to consider the possibility that Simonian was run over (the idea is that as nobody heard an explosion in Gyumri on that day that there was none at all and yes, it’s rather conspiratorial, but that the grenade explanation for his death is to cover up the real cause).
Incidentally, what concerns me most about this case is the following passage from RFE.RL:
Two very obvious questions come to mind here.
i) How did the police miss finding the body of the child when they swept the area a month earlier, and even if that could be considered a simple mistake, if he died from a grenade or other type of explosion, why was one not heard by local residents?
ii) The police say they can not give the precise cause of death before the autopsy is completed but contradict themselves by saying he “probably died as a result of playing with a hand grenade or another explosive device” in order to avoid having to examine the possibility that the two incidents are linked.
I’m sorry, the police’s job is to look into EVERY possibility. Secondly, they should also wait until the autopsy is complete. Anyway, given that we don’t have much information coming from the police and there is a huge problem with the reliability of such information anyway, we RELY on people such as journalists and bloggers to present such information to the public.
So, if you have anything more to add and especially with regards to the concerns I have that still remain, I’d really suggest it’s about time you wrote a post. After all, what’s the point of you blogging at all if you don’t blog about events and incidents such as this? I really mean it, man. So far most of the blogs out there are just re-hashing news stories already published online which actually makes blogging from Armenia in most cases pretty meaningless.
Instead, it’s at times such as this that blogging comes into its own and can be used to supplement the traditional media and also reflect concerns that might exist or initiate proper discussion. For sure, the death of a boy as a result of a mafia shootout or as a result of a grenade or other explosive (from the Russian military base? Where?) is significant enough to be posted about — especially by someone like you, I would have thought, as you come from Gyumri and your family is still there.
Hopefully, you’ll be following this case now and can bring your knowledge of Gyumri into the equation by explaining things such as locations and distances to us all. Still, I will state once again that I don’t buy this argument to discredit calls for Simonian’s death to be thoroughly investigated by saying no explosion was reported at the scene of the gunfight. To repeat myself again, none was also reported where his body was found so my first question is quite obvious.
Is the location where Simonian’s body was found barren and uninhabited or are there houses, businesses or people close enough by to have heard the sound of an explosion had there been one? This is a crucial question that needs answering given that those trying to prove there is no connection between the shootout and the boy’s death use the argument that there was no explosion heard there either to back up their claims. All of these questions need answering and should have been a long time ago.
Thanks in advance.
Re. your comments and statement of facts although I have mentioned some of my queries earlier:
Maybe, but the incident was not confined to there and there would have been speeding vehicles leaving the scene. The RFE/RL article says that one possibility is that Simonian could have been run over.
I don’t know where these streets are as I’ve only seen Yesayan mentioned and also, see the response above.
Again, see the point above.
There were also no reports of explosions at the location where Simonian’s body was found.
Well, we don’t know why Kocharian got involved in this case so late, do we? I mean, I’d also ask another question. Why did Ghukasyan’s son only turn himself in after his father was called into both the Prosecutor’s Office AND the President in the days following the discovery of Simonian’s body? Ghukasian turned himself in on 20 July. Simonian’s body was found just 8 days earlier.
Damage limitation? I don’t know, but another coincidence to raise some important questions. In fact, I’d say that at least your comment has done something that should have happened a long ago. We SHOULD BE DISCUSSING THIS online and the fact that we didn’t raises some serious questions as to why we pretend we have an active blogosphere anyway. In the absence of a reliable and independent media it is precisely issues such as this we need to be discussing and I welcome your response.
Basically, we need to know why and how Simonian died and it’s about bloody time we did. It’s now nearly two weeks since Simonian’s body was found. For god’s sake, how long does it take to perform an autopsy, for the police to make a statement, and if all of that has happened anyway, for the media to do its job in Armenia? Although I don’t watch Armenian TV or read Armenian newspapers, there’s not been anything online to state that his death has been proven not to have been connected, and this despite the fact that if you say there are those ready to “put Ghukasyan against the wall,” there are as many who will be trying to protect him.
As they say, the silence surrounding Simonian’s death is deafening, and whatever the cause of his death, given what is being rumored in Gyumri, it really shouldn’t be. Any updates from the media that you know of and which I don’t, please post them. For sure, there must be some, right? And if there aren’t, why not? Why are people avoiding any mention of this case at all, especially when doing so can only raise more suspicions? Hoping you have some official information from Gyumri on all of this because for sure, by now there should be some.
Comment by Onnik — July 24, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Incidentally, I spoke to someone from Gyumri tonight who says that the general consensus among the people there is that the two incidents are connected. Of course, it’s hard to say if that is the case without doing a city-wide poll, but anyway, the point is that there are so many questions which need to be answered which haven’t. Then again, what does it matter? I’m also told that the inhabitants of Gyumri live in fear of the Mayor and his clan so they’re basically scared shitless to do anything anyway.
None of which proves anything either way of course, and even if it did, it doesn’t necessarily implicate Ghukasyan’s guys as there were two sides involved in the shoot out. However, it isn’t too much to demand a proper police investigation, the full disclosure of autopsy results, and to expect the rule of law to determine how the tragic death of a 12-year-old in mysterious circumstances is handled. Yes, I know, it’s hoping too much, but I think that all of us should want the same if only because such incidents can’t be left as open to rumor and speculation as they are at present.
Comment by Onnik — July 25, 2007 @ 3:54 am
First things first:
Yesayan street is the small street which vertically connects with Kutayisyan str. - which is the bigger street wich links Shirakatsi and Leningradyan streets, both intersecting Gyumri diagonally from South to North. Kutayisyan is hence on the north part of Gyumri.
Avtokayan and Teryan streets are in the South of Gyumri - close to each other. There is no intersection between Teryan/Avtokayan and Shirakatsi/Leningradyan streets. Between all of them there are at least two big squares.
In order to reach Teryan from Yesayan, one would have to walk till Kutayisyan, then turn to Leningradyan - this is about 10-15 minutes of walk, then take a bus or minibus: #20, 12, 1, 3, 39 0r 26.
The shootout started on “Pobeda” street - near the food market (barely 1 kilometer to the north. The two cars moved southwards, took a turn to left - towards Rustam’s shop/house. The main shooting took place in front of Rustam’s shop - Pegas.
Comment by Observer — July 25, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
missed a word - sorry:
The shootout started on “Pobeda” street - near the food market (barely 1 kilometer to the north of the main site of shootout. The two cars moved southwards, took a turn to left - towards Rustam’s shop/house. The main shooting took place in front of Rustam’s shop - Pegas.
Comment by Observer — July 25, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
I’m again trying to find more info - talking to people in Gyumri. Even if I don’t do a post - I’ll bring in the results of my findings here. However, from the last time I was in Gyumri - people are really reluctant to speak there.
Comment by Observer — July 25, 2007 @ 2:03 pm