Questions Linger After Botched Investigation by Police and Prosecutor’s Office

 “I remember the date – August 11, 2008. Me and my sister Karineh had an argument. I wanted to make a phone call and she wouldn’t let me. Then, she threatened that she’d tell our father that I was making a call.

She hit me and I hit her back. When she said that she’d tell our dad, I get worried. He’d naturally get angry and punish me. So I left the house.” This is how Anahit described how the bizarre and frightening story to follow all started. The girl’s house lies not far from the Yerevan-Gyumri highway. Flustered, Anahit left the house and walked to the highway. She wanted to get to Yerevan; to her other sister’s house. She says that there was a white Niva parked on the shoulder. The driver asked her where she wanted to go. The girl answered, Yerevan. The driver told her he’d get her there safe and sound.

“He ripped off my clothes and raped me”

“He seemed like a normal guy and all and spoke politely. I saw nothing to be frightened of, so I got in the car. There were two young guys in the car, Tigran and Aghvan. It was already late at night when we arrived in Yerevan and Tigran said I should leave in the morning. They didn’t let me get out. I was taken to an apartment. It was filthy and musty and looked like no one lived there. There wasn’t even any electric light; just a candle. We had something to eat and I went to the other room to be alone. Before eating, Tigran pulled out some green grassy stuff from his pocket, dried it on the candle flame, and smoked it. He started to blow the smoke right at me. My head started to turn and I felt dizzy-like. Tigran followed me into the other room. He began to grope me but I resisted. He threw me on the bed and ripped off my clothes. He raped me. When I woke up the next morning, I realized that I had been stripped of my virginity,” Anahit recounted. That morning, no words were passed between Anahit and Tigran. The girl only asked for a phone so she could call her sister. She had noticed Tigran’s cell phone earlier but the boys said there was no phone available. The two of them, according to Anahit’s recollection were around 23-24 years old. Tigran spoke the Akhalkalak dialect with a bit of the Gyumri patois thrown in. “Tigran took me to the town of Hoktemberyan. He told me he owned a house there where I could live normally. After what had just happened I didn’t want to return to the village, fearing what the neighbors would say and ashamed to look into the eyes of my family and relatives. So we went to Hoktemberyan. I still was naive enough to believe I wasn’t being deceived. Tigran turned me over to his bunch of friends; about 10-15 guys in Hoktemberyan. One of them, Robert, said he owned a restaurant and that he’d give me a place to stay there,” Anahit continued.

Hot pants and a leather bra: Exotic dancing in a Nor Armavir restaurant

Anahit later found out that Robert Baghdasaryan was the son of the sister of Varuzhan Ishkhanyan, the owner of the “Hin Amrots” restaurant complex in Nor Armavir. Robert introduced Anahit to Varuzhan and left her at the restaurant, promising to take her away from the place later. “One day, Gayaneh, the waitress at the restaurant, said we should dance. I knew how to dance, so that’s what we did. Right then Varuzh came out of his room and saw the two of us. It seemed like he had taught Gayaneh how to dance and that he wanted her to teach me as well. Varuzh bought me some new clothes and said that I would be dancing at the restaurant too. What I had to wear was a pair of hot-pants and a leather bra. He said I’d get paid for prancing around in those clothes. He was a big bear of a man and I was scared too scared to talk back or not follow his orders. On some days, I’d make 10,000-15,000 in tips and stuff from the customers. Varuzh would take the cash and only let me keep 1,500. There was a jar in the safe. Varuzh would take the 1,500 AMD and stuff it into the jar himself; to make it look like it was me doing the saving,” Anahit added. Anahit says that Varuzh asked her right from day one how old she was. When he found out that she was seventeen, he told her not to divulge her age to anyone. She says that Varuzh even advised her not to speak to any of the customers; not even the women. That she should feign not being able to speak. “One evening a girl and some of her friends came to the restaurant. While I was dancing one of the guys came up and asked me who I was and where I was from, etc. I told him my name and age. Vaghinak, the bartender, saw what I was doing and told Varuzh. Later that night Varuzh called me into the office and started yelling at me an even tried to hit me with a water bottle. Luckily, it missed my head. But, he slapped me and my nose started to bleed. Gayaneh handed me a rag to wipe away the blood. Varuzh said that he didn’t want to see me at the restaurant when he returned the next morning,” the girl continued. Anahit claims that they kept her in a dark room at the restaurant. She says that after the quarrel with Varuzh his father passed away and the restaurant owner doesn’t show up at the joint for some time. Seeing where the bartender hid the keys, the girl grabbed them one night after Vaghinak had left. She opened the safe, took her jar of money and took off through the rear door. Anahit says that after her escape from the clutches of Varuzh, who exploited her for a month, she spent the next few days at the homes of different people. Anahit says that no one bothered her at the time. She later called her sister in Yerevan and they both returned to the village. The police were soon on the case and organized a massive “operation” that still continues.

Prosecutor levels rape charges against father

A criminal case has been launched surrounding the rape. Amazingly, it is not Tigran, Robert or even Varuzhan who are being charged but rather Anahit’s father, Sasha Davtyan.

Khanum Mkrtchyan, the father’s attorney, informed us that the pre-trial examination regarding the complicity of Tigran is on-going but that no real investigative measures have been taken. “They built this case around Sasha because he demanded that Tigran, Robert Baghdasaryan and Varuzhan Ishkhanyan be brought to justice. Rather than punishing these guys, they fabricated charges against Sasha, the girl’s father. Even if charges against these individuals had been substantiated, their cases would have been dropped and the father would have been made to answer for the rape of the girl,” noted the attorney. During the trial that took place on December 17 at the Aragatzotn Regional Court, Judge Ruzanna Barseghyan presiding, the court exonerated Shasha Davtyan of the rape-related charges.

Why aren’t those responsible being prosecuted

“That Varuzhan was complicit in trafficking is obvious. He exploited a seventeen year-old girl. Had the investigators taken any action against Tigran and Varuzhan during the pre-trial examination, I would have said that progress was being made. But we’ve hit a dead-end. The investigators are holding these guys in reserve. Many bizarre twists have come to light in this case. None of the participants has ever been investigated or interrogated. It turns out that Tigran’s friend was questioned early one but he’s no longer in the country. There are other such loose ends as well,” attorney Mkrtchyan added For instance, what were the circumstances that led Investigator Ruben Vardanyan to fabricate rape charges against the girl’s father, Sasha Davtyan? Why wasn’t Shasha Davtyan released after having been exonerated by the court? Why has Anahit decided to put an end to her life? Did the Yerevan Central Police Division use excessive force to examine Anahit, now 18, her 22 year-old sister, Garineh, and her father? More to the point, why has the court failed to pursue those actually responsible for the abduction and rape and Anahit. It would seem that the police and prosecutor’s office would rather not address these questions. Why not? More on the case in the next issue of “Hetq”

P.S. The names of the girls have been changed.