Despite the public anger and related protests that have been taking place in Yerevan and elsewhere regarding the beating death of Armenian Army physician Vahe Avetyan, the authorities remain silent as stones.

There even hasn’t been any news about the criminal case launched almost one month ago.

So far, only 5 of the 15 or so individuals who savagely beat Avetyan and his friends have been arrested. What are the police playing at?

Armenian authorities have adopted a policy of silence, thinking that the best approach would be not to further stoke the public ire by ill conceived statements and actions.

But the government in fact has no answers to give the people in any event. And this is what the people expect from a regime that says it won 69% of the vote in the recent parliamentary elections in Armenia.

A government of, by and for the people has an obligation to speak to the voters that put it in power.

The fact that this current regime avoids speaking to the people is yet further proof that it is wholly independent of the people and feels no obligations towards citizens. In short, Armenia’s authorities do not enjoy the people’s “vote of confidence” and thus derive their power from other sources.

This “see no evil”, “hear no evil” approach actually confirms that what took place at Harsnakar on June 17 actually defines the rules of the game in Armenia. The silence of the authorities is nothing more than criminal negligence.

In reality, the authorities are very delicately trying to find a way out of avoiding political responsibility with their silence. They are attempting this maneuver by painting what transpired solely in a “criminal” context.

First RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan declared that what happened at Harsnakar was merely a result of the actions of a few stupid and uneducated restaurant employees and certain members of Ruben Hayrapetyan's personal bodyguard unit.

By doing so, not only have the police lowered what happened to the level of a common murder but have conveniently given investigators the opportunity to close the case by charging a few of the participants.

Despite the fact that Vahe Avetyan was facing death in a hospital bed for almost one month, Hayrapetyan only gave up his parliament seat after the military physician died. In his statement, Hayrapetyan only spoke about his moral obligation.

Even though the case was in the preliminary stage of examination, attorneys working on the social principles of the Republican Party rushed to claim that Hayrapetyan wasn’t at Harsnakar at the time of the incident.

This wasn’t because they actually believed what Hayrapetyan had claimed, but because they wanted to distance the party from any possible political or moral accountability.

But the wave of public anger threatened to turn into a powerful pan-social movement, and the authorities were forced to take steps to see that it didn’t develop from a social one to a one with political overtones.

That’s why Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Science, fired his rhetoric-laden declaration that such incidents should be viewed in their social, human and moral contexts but never political.

Ashotyan deliberately distorted the meaning of the term “political”, by essentially equating it with party affiliation. The reason is clear. If the matter is actually placed on the political agenda, the authorities are faced not with a specific incident but with an even more criminal set of cause and effect relations – it raises the uncomfortable issue of the oligarchs, the ones who keep the regime afloat and the government’s loyalty to them in return.

This is why a party that speaks so much about moral responsibility lacked the moral will to support the initiative of the parliamentary opposition to hold special hearings on the matter, a move that was nothing more than an attempt to bring the issue onto the political agenda – to put the spotlight on the political responsibility of the regime.

To the extent that the issue remains on the civic and moral stage, it is also, at minimum, political in nature.

When Armenia’s president declared in November of 2010 that he couldn’t understand or accept the f convoys of cars of bodyguards on the streets of Yerevan, didn’t he realize that Ruben Hayrapetyan’s goons also were in those privileged ranks?

Who else but the ruling party is responsible if these armed guards continue to operate and in a much more dishonourable fashion than before? It was the party that stubbornly refused to draft legislation to regulate these guys.

Now, the issue has become a political one for the regime. Who to give preference to - the public or the oligarchs?

Hayrapetyan never desired to sit in parliament. But the Republican Party, focused on winning the votes in Avan, convinced him to run on the majoritarian ticket. It wasn’t due to his wit or intellect but because of the weight and influence he carried as someone with power. This is the very reason why he was not only nominated on the majoritarian ticket but successfully came to rest on the party’s proportional list.

This is alone makes what happened at Harsnakar a political issue and the Republican Party bears clear responsibility.