“An eruption of truth”

Sensible Armenians around the world are puzzled as to why Armenia, once prosperous and politically influential, which withstood the “dark and hungry” 1990s and even won the First Karabakh War in those circumstances, is now on the brink of destruction. Its neighbors are the same (as before, they have access to the sea, gas, and oil), and the republic is governed by the successors of the former leaders (who, we were told, saved Armenia back then)… So why, now, 30 years later, is the very existence of the Republic as an independent state an urgent question?

Perhaps the truth was hidden from us, and the people do not know their true heroes—the politicians and strategists who defended sovereign Armenia in the 1990s… Such information surfaced periodically; there were isolated articles and names were mentioned, but about one person there was no information at all, complete silence: Arbak Khachatryan. Some time ago, we learned that court proceedings have been underway for more than two years, which will finally help reveal the whole truth. Last week, the case was sent to the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Republic of Armenia’s Court of Cassation.

The most important thing in this case is not even the statement of claim, but the documents brought out of the archives. For example: the СБА (clearly under the direction of the state’s top officials; there are supporting documents and witness statements), in order to destroy A. Khachatryan, were ready to do anything and violated the laws they were supposed to protect—they robbed and persecuted the family, monitored and recorded the telephone conversations of Armenian citizens who were not under investigation, and handed the materials to Russia’s KGB-FSB; they fabricated documents accusing Khachatryan of murders, supplying weapons to terrorists, cooperating with Bin Laden, and so forth, and also passed them to Russia’s KGB-FSB.

Copies of these documents have been sent to the Republic of Armenia’s Supreme Court (this is only a tiny fraction of the available “operational information” and “wiretaps”). On the basis of the “information” received, and by agreement between the two presidents, A. Khachatryan (then an adviser to the Russian Federation’s human rights ombudsman) was arrested in 2003 and spent three years in Lefortovo… Imagine what they would have done to him if even some of the information had been substantiated.

The grounds for the detention were money that another person had not declared to customs at the airport; Arbak himself was at home at that time, where they “took” him (there are articles in Russian newspapers; look online).

We will try to obtain more information about these proceedings, but we already know that the plaintiffs and lawyers plan to take this case to the European Court, since enormous sums of compensation are at issue for the 25-year persecution of A. Khachatryan and his family (the entire documentary evidentiary basis is available). I wonder whether Armenia’s budget will be sufficient?