The ANI Center for Armenian Studies, as an institution that specializes in the Artsakh issue, condemns the inhuman and unjustifiable violence against Hayk Khanumyan in Stepanakert.
The despicable, dastardly attack on Khanumyan cannot but have political implications, since he is a member of the National Assembly of Artsakh, co-founder and leader of the political party legally registered and operating in Artsakh.
In fact, Khanumyan is the only opposition MP who has consistently criticized the government’s policies on various issues, but also had a constructive position towards other initiatives adopted by the same authorities.
Khanumyan and other young politicians, having established the National Renaissance Party, overcame the five percent threshold to enter the parliament in the latest elections, bringing new style, new culture, new breath and new flavor to domestic politics of Artsakh.
This criminal act against Khanumyan first of all harms the democratic image of Artsakh and is an attack on the unrecognized republic’s reputation, putting it on the same scale with authoritarian Azerbaijan, where dissent is suppressed through beatings, imprisonment and threats to life.
The ANI Center for Armenian Studies calls on the Artsakh authorities, first of all the law-enforcement bodies, to prosecute the crime committed in broad daylight and immediately arrest the perpetrators and punish them under the law.
The highest authorities of Artsakh bear the responsibility for the attack on Hayk Khanumyan unless criminals stand trial.
Otherwise, not only does this attack questions the commitment of Artsakh authorities to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, but the artificial wedge is opened in Armenia-Artsakh relations, as was the case at the time of violence in Berdzor against Zhirayr Sefilyan and his supporters.
Remarks by Artsakh pro-government circles focusing on the fact that Hayk Khanumyan was not born in Artsakh should furthermore be condemned.
ANI Armenian Studies Center
June 7, 2016, Yerevan
In a brazen midday assault outside the NKR parliament in Stepanakert, a group of eight men dressed in military uniforms attacked Hayk Khanumyan, an Artsakh MP with the National Renaissance Party, and manhandled him into a waiting car.
Tigran Grigoryan, a member of the Executive Body of the National Renaissance Party, told Hetq that MP Khanumyan was then driven to towards the village of Khantzakh where he was beaten by some twenty individuals.
His attackers then stuck Khanumyan in a taxi and he was driven back to Stepanakert, the NKR capital.
Khanumyan is now in a local hospital with several broken ribs and a broken nose.
Grigoryan says that Khanumyan’s attackers were wearing military dress and that some of the seven cars in the convoy that whisked the MP away had official license plates. Some cars had no plates at all.
Grigoryan says the attack is linked to the recent activities of the National Renaissance Party and to internal political processes.
It seems that yesterday there was a rally yesterday in Stepanakert and a march on the presidential office.
Grigoryan points an accusing finger at NKR President Bako Sahakyan, the supreme upholder of the constitution.
“They beat MPs opposite the parliament, even in the presence of reporters. This means that there is no government. We have no government, just a group of thugs, who are merely terrorizing citizens and MPs. They are trying to terrorize the populace by beating them,” said Grigoryan.
HETQ, http://hetq.am/eng/news/68392/mp-khanoumyan-attacked-outside-artsakh-parliament-taken-by-car-and-beaten.html
National Renaissance Party MP Hayk Khanumyan, who was attacked and beaten earlier today in Stepanakert, issued a statement saying that he knows seven of his attackers.
Khanumyan says he will not be intimidated to leave Artsakh and that his primary aim is that the country become a place where all are protected under the law.
The MP says that he was forced to sign a document saying that yesterday’s rally in the NKR capital was ill conceived and wrong.
“I know seven of my attackers and my friends are clarifying their data. Those details will be conveyed to other of my friends,” Khanumyan writes in his statement.
