The mayor, 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 just west of Yerevan. Law-enforcement authorities claimed to have solved the killing after arresting two local residents in the following days.
According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, one of the suspects, a 20-year-old man, admitted shooting and killing Grigorian, saying that he avenged the death of his friend Grigor Ohanian.
Ohanian died in February this year in a brawl and 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 13 individuals charged in connection with that killing. He is currently under house arrest, denying any involvement.
Investigators have suggested that the community chief fell victim to a revenge killing. The other suspect arrested by them is Ohanian’s brother Narek. He was charged with “assisting” in the September 22 killing. He denies the accusation.
The slain mayor’s family and supporters believe that the authorities have failed to properly investigate what they call a politically motivated killing masterminded by Akhtoyan. The latter reportedly left Armenia ten days before the crime. Members of his family and other close relatives left Merdzavan in the wake of it. It is not clear whether the investigators have tried to contact and question Akhtoyan.
Some Grigorian supporters began collecting on Sunday signatures in support of their demands for the government to banish Akhtoyan and his relatives from the community. According to them, more than 2,500 local residents signed the petition as of Monday afternoon. They said they will collect more signatures in the coming days before sending the petition to the government.
“The sooner they leave the village, the better,” one of the signatories told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Peace will then prevail in Merdzavan.”
“I expect the worst from them,” said another man.
Other locals disagreed.
“I don't think it's right,” said one woman in Merdzavan. “I also don’t know what will happen if [the Akhtoyans] stay on.”
In Yerevan, Hasmik Hakobian, a parliament deputy from Civil Contract, strongly condemned the demands, saying that they are blatantly illegal.
“Who are you to decide who lives in the Merdzavan community and who doesn't?” she said, appealing to the individuals behind the signature collection.
With tensions in Merdzavan still running high, police presence there remained heavy on Monday. Police officers continued to patrol village streets as well as the homes of Grigorian, Akhtoyan and the two arrested suspects.
Grigorian was shot dead almost six months after an opposition bloc led by him defeated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party in a tense local election. The bloc is dominated by the Yerevan-based opposition party Aprelu Yerkir whose leaders also say that the investigators have yet to find out who was behind the self-confessed shooter. Other, more radical opposition figures in Yerevan claim that Grigorian’s killing was made possible by what they see as Pashinian’s crackdown on dissent and impunity enjoyed by his loyalists.