VZCZCXRO8621
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBW RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0414/01 1411257
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201257Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7550
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 000414 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL AND EUR/CARC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KCRM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: NOTORIOUS SYUNIK GOVERNOR ACCUSED OF BEATING A TEENAGER 
 
 
YEREVAN 00000414  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
(U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) The new Prime Minister ordered a political inquiry into 
opposition press allegations that the Syunik governor viciously beat 
a teenager after a skirmish with the governor's son.  The probe was 
led by the governor's supervisor, the Territorial Administration 
minister, who unsurprisingly found no wrong-doing.  The speedy 
exoneration of the infamous governor looks more like a whitewash 
than justice, and a lost opportunity to turn a new page in 
accountable government.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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ARMENIA'S LAWLESS SOUTH 
----------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On April 23 the pro-opposition Aravot (Morning) daily 
reported that Suren Khachatrian, the notorious governor (marzpet) of 
the southern Armenian region of Syunik, had beaten and broken the 
jaw of a 12-year-old boy in retaliation for an altercation the boy 
had had with the governor's son.  Aravot said the family of the boy 
in question had chosen not to report the case out of fear of 
retribution by the governor.  (NOTE:  This is not the first such 
report about Khachatrian, who de facto reigns over Syunik as a 
feudal lord, or about his family.  In 2007 the governor's brother 
reportedly attempted to rape a girl at broad daylight in a 
supermarket.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) In a subsequent April 25 report, Aravot published an email 
that was sent to it by the father of the alleged victim who refuted 
Aravot's report, declaring that "not only there is no atmosphere of 
fear in the region under their most respected Governor, but all the 
residents live in a manner suitable for a citizen of most developed 
countries (sic)."  After pledging to look further into the case, 
Aravot subsequently acknowledged in a published correction that they 
had incorrectly identified the real victim in their first report, 
and that his real age was 16, not 12. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In subsequent reports, Aravot refused, however, to reveal 
the victim's true identity, citing concerns that the authorities 
could not guarantee the security of the victim or his family. 
Aravot reported that for this same reason the family of the victim 
had not applied to law enforcement authorities or sought medical 
care at a hospital.  Aravot said it had also heard reports that 
goons affiliated with the governor were conducting surveillance of 
the victim's house. 
 
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THE NEW ACCOUNTABLE PRIME MINISTER 
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¶5. (SBU) In an unexpected move on April 25, at the first full 
session of the new government, Armenia's new Prime Minister Tigran 
Sargsian ordered Armen Gevorkian, his Deputy Prime Minister who also 
serves as Minister of Territorial Administration, to investigate 
Aravot's report.  PM Sargsian said the government had to respond to 
media articles on issues of significant public interest.  The prime 
minister's words suggested first that government should be 
accountable and responsive to public allegations of wrong-doing. 
However, there was also an implication that the government would set 
out to punish media outlets for allegations that the government 
decided were not credible. 
 
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INVESTIGATION RAISES QUESTIONS 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) During the government's May 8 session, Deputy PM Gevorkian 
presented the results of his internal probe  which found no 
misconduct by Syunik's governor, finding instead that the youth in 
question had hit the governor's son.  According to Gevorkian, a 
special commission was formed to investigate the report, and its 
members visited the Syunik region several times to interview people 
there.  As a result of its finding, the commission concluded that 
the paper had misrepresented the facts of the case. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In a bizarre development, the commission initially met and 
X-rayed the jaw of the misidentified 12-year-old, about whom Aravot 
had already published a retraction.  In the interim, Aravot's editor 
had been buoyed by the new PM's vow to investigate official 
misdeeds, and decided to share the identity of the real victim with 
the commission.  Their editor said in a subsequent interview that 
Gevorkian's deputy had assured him the information would never be 
made public, but the information was nonetheless publicized in the 
 
YEREVAN 00000414  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
commission's report. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In spite of the fact that Aravot provided the commission 
with the identity of the real alleged victim, the commission limited 
its probe to interviews with the victim and his family, foregoing 
any X-rays of the correct boy's jaw.  The boy's father reportedly 
told the commission on May 1 that his son had an argument and beat 
the governor's son, and that he later met with the governor to sort 
out their sons' differences.  In issuing its findings, the 
commission claimed that there were no visible signs of injury on the 
boy in question.  (NOTE:  Weeks had already passed since the alleged 
beating by the time the commission visited the boy.  END NOTE.) 
 
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THE UNPROTECTED VICTIMS 
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¶9. (SBU) On May 9 Aravot published an editorial that slammed the 
investigation and criticized the government for reneging on its 
promises.  Aravot's editor wrote that one had to be crazy to believe 
that it was possible to get away with beating the son of Syunik's 
governor.  He added that the paper had talked with the family of the 
battered boy in the presence of witnesses, and they confirmed that 
the governor had severely beaten the boy.  Aravot alleged that the 
beating had jeopardized the boy's health, and that he had 
subsequently contracted bronchitis.  They reconfirmed that the 
family forewent medical care at a hospital out of fear of 
retribution, relying instead on a doctor friend's assistance. 
 
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GOVERNOR AMBUSHED BY PRESS IN YEREVAN 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) On May 13, Governor Khachatrian came under a media ambush 
at the National Assembly where he was attending a meeting with the 
rest of Armenia's 11 governors.  Asked about the media reports of 
the alleged beating, Khachatrian said "Don't believe the rumors, I 
don't think that any of you here is able to think that I could beat 
a child."  When Radio Liberty's reporter insisted to Khachatrian 
that she had information corroborating the beating, but that the 
parents of the child were afraid of pursuing the issue, Khachatrian 
responded that "I don't think that the parents of the boy are so 
cowardly."  When asked why he continued to be the object of so many 
negative media reports, Khachatrian said it was because people 
wanted to defame him.  When reporters asked why he refused to pursue 
these cases for libel, he answered that he was tired of the rumors 
and not going to go after them. 
 
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ARAVOT REPORTER INTERVIEW 
------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) The opposition A1Plus online news service interviewed Anna 
Israelian, the Aravot reporter who covered the case.  She questioned 
why the authorities sent the commission to the wrong boy, x-rayed 
him, and included it in their publicized findings if her paper had 
published its retraction prior to the commission's dispatch to 
Syunik.  She questioned why the commission chose not to x-ray the 
real victim.  She said she was not surprised by the outcome of the 
investigation, as residents in Syunik are terrified to speak about 
the affair, fearing they could invoke the wrath of their governor. 
She said Aravot learned about the incident only through a third 
source, another indication of the level of fear in the region. 
Israelian said she nevertheless held out hope that the new 
government would eventually do the right thing. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶12. (SBU) Syunik's governor has a long-standing, well-deserved 
reputation as a thug who rules the distant southern province with an 
iron grip.  While we do not yet have firsthand information to 
confirm or deny Arovot's story, its interpretation of events makes 
more sense on its face than the official version.  Although 
definitely anti-government in editorial slant, Aravot tends to be 
more reliable in its reporting than other opposition newspapers.  We 
agree with the Aravot editorial that it strains credulity to believe 
that the governor's son was the victim of attack and that there was 
then no consequence for the ostensible aggressor.  Far more likely 
-- indeed all too typical for Armenia -- is that the governor's son 
beat up another youth, and the local administration rallied to 
manufacture a version of events that blames the victim.  The lack of 
a prosecution for libel also tends to corroborate the interpretation 
that the governor is lying.  The ability of key figures -- 
governors, mayors, generals, oligarchs, as well as their sons, 
bodyguards, and retainers -- to beat up or even kill ordinary 
 
YEREVAN 00000414  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
citizens with impunity remains both a human rights blot and cause 
for ongoing public anger at the entrenched elites. 
 
PENNINGTON