TO THE MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA MS. ARPINE SARGSYAN
14-01-2025 13:16:40 | Armenia | Announcements
TO THE MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA MS. ARPINE SARGSYAN
Copies to:
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia
The Delegation of the European Union to Armenia
The Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Armenia
Mass Media
Dear Ms. Sargsyan,
On January 3, 2025, the organization (community) of Greeks in Armenia "Patrida" received a statement from a citizen of Armenia, Alvard Rubenovna Evoyan, residing at 30 Dzhravazani Street, Apartment 10, Alaverdi.
In her statement, she reported that on December 13, 2024, at 8:00 a.m., a group of police officers and an investigator entered her apartment at the aforementioned address without explanation (which was provided later), without witnesses, and began a search. Ms. Evoyan lives alone in the apartment. Such an unexpected visit by law enforcement at such an early hour frightened the elderly and ill woman. According to Ms. Evoyan, the search revealed that they did not find any items of interest to them. They were allegedly looking for compromising materials against her son, Armen Kilinkarov, a Greek by nationality, who had left for the Russian Federation on business and remains there to this day.
During our conversation with Ms. Evoyan, she expressed her outrage at the intrusive visit by law enforcement officials, particularly because she suspects that the regional law enforcement authorities have been surveilling her son for a long time. She fears that during the search, the officers may have planted prohibited items (such as weapons or drugs) in her apartment to later "find" them upon her son's return from Russia, thereby justifying another search.
Ms. Evoyan is alarmed for her son’s safety and has asked our organization to protect her family from such abuse.
Dear Minister, please note that Ms. Evoyan is an elderly pensioner suffering from a severe illness. Her son, Armen Kilinkarov, frequently travels from Russia to Armenia to care for her.
Ms. Evoyan also informed us that she had twice approached the Chief of Police of the Tumanyan District, Mr. A. Gyurdjian, regarding the fact that the perpetrator behind the murder of her other son, Gagik Kilinkarov, a Greek by nationality, on January 12, 2012, in Alaverdi, by Vasily Shakhverdyan, remains unidentified. However, her efforts have been fruitless.
Ms. Evoyan has received a written response from the Chief of Police, stating that they have no knowledge about the perpetrators behind the murder. At the same time, the Chief of Police referenced certain conflicts that occurred in the city during that period. However, the identity of the perpetrator is widely known in the community, and suspicions point to the former mayor of Alaverdi.
It is also worth noting that in the year of Gagik Kilinkarov’s murder, her other son, Armen Kilinkarov, who is now being pursued by law enforcement, was in Russia. Upon his return to Armenia, law enforcement in Alaverdi began to unjustly target him, seemingly out of fear of a vendetta for his brother’s death.
Armen Kilinkarov, who is now being harassed by law enforcement, possesses video recordings showing local police stopping him and demanding that he leave Armenia. What gives your officers the right to engage in unconstitutional activities?
Armen Kilinkarov, a Greek by nationality and a citizen of Armenia, owns property in Armenia and should be under state protection—if the state indeed still exists. One cannot help but question the competence of law enforcement, which appears to have forgotten its duties and continues to execute the orders of former corrupt district officials from the era of Serzh Sargsyan's administration. Moreover, the local police, in cooperation with Georgian law enforcement, have managed to declare Armen Kilinkarov persona non grata in Georgia, where his ancestral home is located in the village of Opreta in the Marneuli District. He is now forced to defend his inheritance rights in court.
Dear Minister, we understand that you have recently taken office and likely have a heavy workload. Otherwise, we would have directed this issue to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia; however, this institution, once a rare functioning body in the country, has lost its effectiveness and public trust.
It has long been said: if you want to destroy a country, undermine it from within by appointing unqualified individuals to critical and responsible positions. Unfortunately, this practice continues to this day.
We hope you will instruct the relevant structures of your Ministry to investigate the legal violations committed by some of your subordinates. At the request of the "Patrida" organization of Greeks in Armenia, our partners and friends, including lawyers, have already begun addressing this issue and have taken initial steps.
I look forward to working with you and remain at your disposal.
Sincerely,
Chairman: Ed Polatov (Polatidis)
Human Rights Advocate
Attachments:
Statement by Alvard Rubenovna Evoyan
Photocopy of her passport
P.S. Background information:
1990–1998: Deputy Chairman of the State Migration Administration
1998–2004: Member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Republic of Armenia
2000: Co-founder and organizer of the Coordination Council for National Minorities in the Republic of Armenia
2004–2011: Responsible human rights advocate for migration, refugees, and national minorities at the Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia
2009–2018: Co-founder and member of the Public Council under the President of the Republic of Armenia