What follows are excerpts of an interview that Hetq conducted with Davit Ziroyan in connection with the charges made by two of his former wives in the articles - “Tale of Terror: Young Newlywed Seeks Justice for 10 Months of Cruel Mistreatment” and “Tale of Terror: Monica, the First Victim”.

Readers will recall that Davit Ziroyan’s two wives, Mariam and Monica, both charged him and his family with cruel and abusive treatment while they lived in Russia.

Davit Ziroyan recently visited the offices of Hetq and requested that we publish a letter responding to those charges. We declined and suggested an interview instead.

Davit, in your letter you only talk about Mariam Gevorgyan and say you hold no grudge against Monica. We know that Monica has retracted a part of her testimony. For instance, she now claims that the blindness in one of her eyes was the result of improper medical treatment, whereas she told us that you and your mother constantly hit her in that eye.

Monica had a foreign object in her eye from the age of eight. We took her to a hospital in Saint Petersburg. They examined the eye and found a foreign object.

But after returning to Armenia, the investigative service ordered an eye examination which found no such object. We have the medical report from the Malayan Eye Center according to which it can’t be ruled out that the blindness resulted from wounds. Had there been a foreign object, they would have mentioned it, no?

The reason is because they used a sonogram to examine the eye. The object is deep. We presented documents attesting to the fact that after returning to Armenia, she went to the doctor and said there is a foreign object in her eye.

Even if she’s had a foreign object in her eye since the age of eight, couldn’t the blows to her head and eyes have caused the blindness?

There were no blows.

Do you have those papers from the Saint Petersburg hospital verifying that there’s a foreign object in Monica’s eye?

Monica has all the paperwork. This is all a story made-up by Mariam who wants to prove to the people in the village that she is pure and without shame. Mariam is the one that put Monica up to this.

But Monica isn’t retracting all of her former testimony.

There are certain things she says that are correct. I too have confessed to them.

What, for example?

That I hit her. But no one else in the family did.

And how did you hit her? She claims you smashed glass jars on her head.

Nothing of the kind.

Did you break her finger?

Yes. But it was an accident. There was a family quarrel and, in the heat of the moment, I picked up a chair and flung it. The chair happened to hit her finger.

Did you take her to see a doctor?

Yes.

Monica told us that she continued to do household chores with the broken finger. She returned to Armenia and went to see a doctor here who had to break the finger again to properly reset it.

I don’t know about that. Maybe she broke it again.

In Armenia?

Here, there. All I know is that we took her to the doctor and it was taken care of.

Davit, the doctor in Armenia had to reset that same finger. Now, it can’t bend. Can you explain this?

I don’t know.

What about the pregnancy? Even though she’s since retracted her story, she originally told us that she was three months pregnant…

I have provided law enforcement with all the addresses of all those hospitals we went to.

Are you saying she wasn’t pregnant?

I prefer not to answer that question.

Perhaps you read in Hetq that Monica claims when your mother found out she was pregnant, she started to beat her in the stomach and back. Monica says your mother charged her with staying in the family to “get a hold of their money”.

I prefer not to answer.

What about Monica’s charges that you forced her to stand naked in a corner, that your mother hit her with a ladle over her body and cut her head with a knife, etc?

Nothing of the kind ever happened. Why would my mother ever hit her?

But the scars are there. Monica’s father says that while she has a small childhood scar on her head, the others were the result of a knife.

Maybe all the scars are from her childhood. Why just the small one? I’d rather not discuss Monica because there are issues. I don’t want to get into them.