Readers will remember the recent Hetq story about Mariam, the young Armenian village girl who experienced 10 months of cruel and abusive treatment at the hands of her husband Davit Ziroyan and his family in Moscow.

Here, we will present readers with the story about Monica, Davit’s first wife. Monica married Davit in 2005 and also was taken to St. Petersburg. She stayed for three years before escaping back to Armenia, a woman broken both physically and psychologically.

When Hetq wrote about the travails of Mariam, we got in touch with Monica as well. Monica didn’t want to talk to us at first. She argued that nothing would result from her revelations about what she went through in Russia. Her parents finally relented, with the proviso that Hetq not publish any photos of Monica.

All they asked was that we publish a photo of the girl’s eyes before leaving with her husband Davit for St. Petersburg. The parents wanted to prove that before getting married, Monica had no problem with her eyes.

Monica’s parents told us that Davit’s mother Haykanoush would come around the house speaking highly of her son. One day, Davit and his mom came to Monica’s parents asking for their daughter’s hand in marriage. Monica’s parents went to Artashat, the town where the Ziroyan’s lived until 2003, and asked questions of the neighbours. Monica says that they all had good things to say about the family.

On October 23, 2005, Davit and Monica were engaged and left for St. Petersburg a few days later.

“Everything was fine for the first two months. Then my mother-in-law started going crazy. Davit really loved me and this drove the woman insanely jealous. She drove Davit to hit me. Haykanoush also started to beat me,” Monica relates.

Monica says they beat her using any trivial excuse; she walked the wrong way or performed tasks not to their liking.

“They would beat me with the hands and feet. When they tired, they would take chairs and large ladles to my head and eyes. Haykanoush would beat me till she saw blood,” Monica says.

When comparing her three years of torture with that experienced by Mariam, Davit’s second wife, Monica grins and says at least she wasn’t burned and got a hot bath once a month. Monica also says that unlike Mariam, she was able to sleep lying down, either on the kitchen floor or out in the hallway.

“When they felt like it, the family would have me stand naked, on one foot, next to an open window. Leningrad is a cold and damp city. But it didn’t matter. I could be running a high fever and they’d force me to stand like that,” Monica says.

When Haykanoush found out that her daughter-in-law was pregnant, she beat Monica in the stomach and back. Monica had an abortion in her third month.

The only other time Monica saw a doctor was for an eye exam. Due to the constant beatings, Monica’s left eye kept tearing. The doctor prescribed eye drops but the beatings continued. Monica soon went blind in her left eye.

Monica’s father says that when they filed a police report, Haykanoush’s sisters back in Armenia claimed that Monica had eye problems before the marriage.

“Inspector Avetyan took a look at Monica’s engagement photo and said that both eyes looked normal and symmetrical. We even took my girl to the Malayan Eye Hospital for a second time at their request,” says Monica’s father.

The hospital’s medical report, in the possession of Hetq, states that while it cannot be determined when the illness originally began, such pathology could be the consequence of sustained injuries.

Monica says during a face to face police interview, Davit denied all the charges and argued that years had passed since the couple separated and that Monica’s injuries happened afterwards. She says that Davit and the investigator got on like they were old chums.

Monica had returned to Armenia in the summer of 2008 with Haykanoush. The young woman says that her mother-in-law told her that ‘you’ve served us long enough and have worked off the cost of a plane ticket and you meals’. Haykanoush warned Monica not to mention anything about the beatings or else she’d have Monica’s family killed.

Monica’s parents confess that while they had an inkling that something was wrong when they talked to Monica by phone, they had no specifics to go on.

In fact, after returning to Armenia, Monica had told her parents nothing until Mariam, Davit’s second wife, showed up at the house. Monica says that she ‘broke down’ upon seeing Mariam, which led her to open up to her parents and eventually the police.

The two former wives of Davit Ziroyan filed a police report on October 25, 2010. A criminal investigation was launched a few days later. On December 28, Haykanoush Mikayelyan (Davit’s mother) was charged with intentional cruelty and a search of her whereabouts was started.

On April 1, 2011, Davit was also criminally charged with various degrees of physical assault.

The very next day, Investigator Artur Avetyan froze the case, arguing that the whereabouts of the culprits was unknown. This was his decision, even though the women had provided Armenian police with the Ziroyans’ address in St. Petersburg and law enforcement agencies of the two countries have signed a number of cooperation treaties in such cases.

Skip to August 20, 2011. Davit Ziroyan returns to Armenia and hands himself over to the Artashat police. The police lift the detention order against him since the prosecuting investigator decided to pardon him and drop the case. Davit never spent one day in jail. He has since returned to Russia.

Davit’s mother, Haykanoush, is in the process of being extradited to Armenia from Russia.

Monica’s father says it’s been months since the police have told him that Haykanoush will be brought to Armenia.

“I even doubts that that have detained her or ever will,” he says.

Monica says that she met up with Davit after the two were questioned at the Artashat Police Station.

“You’ll see, in a few days I’ll be out of here. I’ve beaten the charges and so has my mother. You know how much money I’ve spent?” This is what Monica says she was told by Davit.

Monica says that afterwards the investigator summoned her to Vedi, advising the woman not to bother them anymore.

“Just to add a word here or change a sentence there, we’ve taken people back and forth 100 times. I’ve recorded the same thing 15 times. What’s the point of continuing?”