The official, Volodya Grigorian, and a friend of his, off-duty police officer Karen Abrahamian, were gunned down late on September 22 as they stood outside his house in Merdzavan, one of the nine villages making up the community.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said one of the suspects, a local resident identified as Gevorg Harutiunian, admitted that he was the masked gunman who shot and killed them. It said nothing about his motives.
Sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the other arrested man, Narek Ohanian, refused to testify. He was charged with assisting in the killings. Ohanian’s 29-year-old brother was killed in February in a shootout that occurred outside the Merdzavan house of Mher Akhtoyan, the then village administration chief affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party.
Grigorian’s brother is one of several individuals charged in connection with that killing. He is currently under house arrest, denying any involvement. Investigators suggested that the community chief fell victim to a revenge killing.
“According to the results of the investigation and data currently available, the hypothesis remains that this was a continuation of the incident that occurred in Merdzavan in February, during which the brother of the person arrested in this case was killed,” the Armenian Interior Ministry spokesman, Narek Sargsian, told reporters.
The opposition Aprelu Yerkir party, with which the slain mayor was affiliated, deplored the official theory of the crime on Monday. One of its leaders, Mesrop Arakelian, again denied Grigorian’s and his brother’s involvement in the February incident and said “the fabricated vendetta theory has nothing to do with reality.” Arakelian demanded that investigators identify “organizers and masterminds” of the mayor’s killing, instead of making a “political evaluation.”
Meanwhile, Merdzavan residents remained reluctant to comment on the killing on camera. Some of them seemed to agree with the official theory while criticizing the authorities for their failure to prevent the latest shooting there.
“If there was 24-hour surveillance, this incident may not have happened,” said one man. “I blame law enforcement because they could have done a lot to prevent it but they didn’t.”
Security in the village was visibly tightened following the high-profile killing. Police said they have placed under surveillance the homes of local families believed to be involved in the presumed blood feud. An RFE/RL correspondent witnessed police presence outside Ohanian’s house.
On Friday, the police and the Investigative Committee sacked two of their top officials in the Armavir province encompassing the troubled community. In a clearly related development, Armavir’s chief prosecutor was fired on Monday.
Grigorian was shot dead six months after an opposition bloc led by him defeated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party in a tense local election. Some opposition figures have openly held Pashinian responsible for his death. They claim that it was made possible by what they see as Pashinian’s crackdown on dissent and impunity enjoyed by his loyalists.