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Lchashen’s Own “A Drop of Honey”

[December 18, 2006]

Kyaram Avdalyan, a Yezidi, was beaten on November 6 on a plot of land called Kasharner near Varser village in the provincial region of Gegharkunik. He died the same day. The Gegharkunik Prosecutor's Office registered a criminal case, found the culprit and took him into custody. This case would have progressed quietly, if Avdalyan's relatives had not protested loudly at the arrest of the “wrong” criminal.

A month after Kyaram Avdalyan's death, on December 7, his family members and relatives organized a demonstration outside the office of the President, demanding the release of the “innocent man, falsely arrested on purpose” and calling for the arrest of the head of Lchashen village in Gegharkunik who, according to them, was guilty of Kyaram's murder.

According to the Yezidi demonstrators, it was Lchashen village head Koryun Mangaryan and six of his supporters who had brutally beaten Kyaram. The Yezidis based this on what was narrated by two of their compatriots who were present at the autopsy. According to them, the body bore obvious signs of blows, a number of ribs were broken, and the brain and internal organs were saturated with coagulated blood. “One person could not have done such damage,” said the brother of the deceased. On the other hand, nobody would have dared carry out such “brutal murder” without the consent of the village head, especially the shepherd.

Kyaram's 67-year old mother Gyulizar, tired of the ineffectiveness of the demonstration, suddenly poured gasoline on herself and her three grandchildren (the 16-year old twins of the deceased, Suren and Romik, as well as 12-year old Armen, the nephew of the deceased) and set them all afire. The victims were taken to hospital with second and third degree burns, and the Avdalyans' story caught the attention of the press.

“This case will not be solved until blood is spilled,” Agit, the brother of the mortally beaten Kyaram, was convinced. According to Agit, the Gegharkunik Prosecutor's Office had imprisoned Avetik Margaryan, a “seventy-year old shepherd who had been bribed by the village head to accept the blame himself,” despite knowing very well who the real culprits were. “When I called my brother, it turned out that they had already hit him – he could barely speak. He said, ‘The Lchashen village head came with his people and beat me. Come quick and save me,'” narrated Agit and noted that his brother passed away five or six minutes after the phone call.

“They made up all sorts of things on behalf of the deceased,” Sos, the son of arrested suspect Avedik Margaryan, said angrily. He emphasized that his father was fifty years old, not seventy. “My father did not beat Kyaram up for no reason. That Yezidis' suru (herd) has destroyed around thirty hectares of cultivated land – the possessions of around thirty households. Two of our fields were ruined, and after all that Kyaram beat my father up for driving his herd off the land,” said Sos.

A resident of the Zovuni village in the Kotayk provincial region, forty-two-year-old Kyaram Avdalyan, an ethnic Yezidi, took up temporary residence with his large family in tents set up at the plot of land called Kasharner , in the Gegharkunik village of Varser. According to Agit, his herd of sheep entered a field belonging to Lchashen shepherd Avedik Margaryan on November 6. Margaryan herded the animals and captured all of them – around 850 - as compensation for the damage done. The children called their father, Kyaram, who had gone to Hrazdan, and told him what had happened. But the women in the family had managed to get the sheep back through “requests and appeals” before his return.

“My brother came back and went with his Armenian friend Onik from Varser and Onik's grandson, to sort out why the shepherd had taken the sheep and to make sure he did nothing like that again,” said Agit and emphasized that when they met with Avedik, Kyaram was taken by surprise as Emin, Onik's 17-year old grandson, punched the shepherd and cut his eyebrow. “My brother didn't want a fight. He apologized to Avedik the shepherd and washed his face with the water he had in his car,” said Agit, noting that Kyaram had narrated all this himself when he returned to the tent - feeling guilty about the incident – after he had taken his friend and the grandson home.

“It's a lie. My husband's face was battered, his teeth were broken and he was drenched in blood when he came home. He said that the Yezidi had beaten him up,” said Aregnaz Khachatryan, Avedik's wife. “He would never have beaten him if the Yezidi had not struck first. They fought, he beat him, and misfortune occurred. The Yezidi died, but my husband is bearing his punishment – I have nothing to say on that front. After all, it could have been my husband who died, right?” asked Aregnaz, adding, “Would that mean I would have to take my children and burn them?”

Some time after the incident with Avedik Margaryan, when Kyaram had already returned to his tent, Onik called and said that “The Lchashen village head had called and asked where you live. He has two cars looking for you now, to kill you. Run away to your father's house quickly, or come to my place.”

Kyaram did not manage to escape. His Niva was cut off by the party from Lchashen, around 700 meters from his tent. The village head pulled Kyaram out of his car by his clothes. He knocked him down he and his supporters kicked him brutally. Kyaram somehow managed to escape and hide among some rocks. The party from Lchashen approached the tents and insulted the women and children there, and departed after the village head said, “We've done what we came to do.”

Koryun Margaryan, the Lchashen village head, considered the above narration “complete fiction.” According to him, he has no acquaintance named Onik and could therefore not have called him. “On that unfortunate day, Avedik, who had been beaten, came to my office with two animal farmers and told me what had happened in detail. I called the land planner immediately to find out how much land the Yezidis' flock had ruined. Seven of us (me, the land planner, the three shepherds, one landowner and the driver) went in two cars to where the Yezidis lived. We came across a white Niva before we reached the tents. Avedik recognized Kyaram and we stopped him. Avedik ran up to Kyaram and struck him a couple of times. I pulled him aside quickly and the Yezidi escaped. This struggle lasted around fifteen or twenty seconds. I don't know why the Yezidi ran away. He probably thought we had come to avenge Avedik. I don't know anything about his severe injuries. There is talk that he has had the same quarrel with other Yezidis, who have asked him why he lets his flock graze on other people's fields. If we had truly beaten him, as they say we did, why would we go to the tents to show ourselves so openly?” the village head asked with surprise and added, “There were only women and children at the tents. We explained to them very politely that their sheep had caused our villagers a lot of damage. They said that the men had gone to Varser and would come to Lchashen as soon as they returned, to discuss the matter of penalties and fines.

“I presented myself as Lchashen village head Koryun Margaryan there. They didn't even know me. But now they won't stop uttering my name and they've made me a criminal,” said Margaryan and emphasized, “They have ulterior motives, and everyone knows that. They have a good toastmaster and godfather who also has a good imagination and has orchestrated this whole scene… If they wanted a fair trial then they would have demanded the evidence and the progress in the case and would not ask on the very next day (November 7) why the village head had not been arrested. If Koryun Margaryan had been arrested, it would've been fair, right? That is the script that their big daddy had written. They've made that up so that they could say that it was Koryun and then demand reparations from Koryun. What could they demand of the poor shepherd, what did he possess?”

(The person referred to is Aziz Tamoyan, President of the Union of Yezidis in Armenia – authors)

“The village head is a fat piece of meat, a good catch” – this is how one of Avedik Margaryan's relatives explained the protests against the village head. Village head Margayan said that they had offered financial compensation to the Avdalyans, “Negotiations were initiated. Our representatives went and said that we were ready to offer compensation. They asked for a huge sum, then set the mark at 50,000 dollars. They told us that they had spent 20,000 dollars on the funeral alone. We have approached them every day and asked them to reconsider, saying that we could not afford that much and offering 15,000. But after consulting with their ‘daddy', they would always reject that offer. They said that they would not rest till they received 50,000 dollars. It's not that you don't want to give them the money – their loss is much larger than any sum – it's just that you can't afford it, so what can you do?”

Agit Avdalyan said that the people of Lchashen had not offered any compensation or help, while his family has spent 20,000 dollars on the funeral alone. “It is unfortunate, yes, but how can you pour gasoline on your own children and set them alight… He said, ‘If you'll give us 50,000, good. If not, I'll do what I like...' But how can I give that money? I don't have it,” asked Koryun Margaryan.

The mother of the deceased, Gyulizar, suffered the most severe burns. The doctor on duty said that it was much too early to speak about whether they would live, much less their rehabilitation (the twins' faces have been burnt completely). It turned out that the twins had earlier contracted brucellosis, which further complicated their state. There is no sign of regret on Gyulizar's face. She even threatened to repeat the immolation if it proved ineffective. Her act has, perhaps, yielded the result that the Avdalyans were working for – on the day the self-immolation was committed, December 7, the case was transferred to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia.

Ararat Davtyan, Vahe Sarukhanyan, Hasmik Hovhannisyan