Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

Spitak city residents injured by the violent actions of Vahagn Chakhalyan, who is the founder of “Kamk” NGO initiating collection of signatures against the ratification of “Istanbul Convention”, are discontent with the process of the investigation.

On September 6, 2019, members of “Kamk” NGO collecting signatures against the Istanbul Convention, headed by Vahagn Chakhalyan, used violence against a number of residents of Spitak city. 

On January 13, 2020, they applied to Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor for the protection of their rights. The residents told that on September 6, 2019, Vahagn Chakhalyan, founder of “Kamk” initiation, and a group of like-minded persons initiated a collection of signatures in the center of Spitak city, near the house of culture. They tried to persuade two women not willing to participate in the signature collection to sign. Seeing this, Spitak city resident, 75-year-old Hrachik Tumanyan interfered by saying, “Why do you make them sign? If they don’t want to sign, then they shouldn’t”. In response, Vahagn Chakhalyan offended the elderly person by calling him “dumb” and then punched him in the face. As a result of the violence, 70-year-old Rudik Darchinyan developed hearing loss.

They claim that Argishti Tonoyan, senior investigator of particularly important cases in Spitak investigative division is biased and obviously does not make attempts to conduct an objective investigation. The residents have doubts that monthslong confrontations aim at extorting new testimony and this way changing the old testimonies. Hrachik Tumanyan showed HCA Vanadzor photos in his mobile phone, where his face with bruises can be seen. As the citizens inform, the criminal case that lasted for five months was discontinued based on the absence of corpus delicti, which caused their discontent.

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