On December 28, 2006, there was an announcement on practically all Armenian television channels that the National Security Service of Armenia had arrested resident of the Lusarat village of the Ararat region Vahan Aronyan connected with the case brought up against leaders of the “Armenian Volunteers’ Union” party Zhirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan. According to the message of the NSS, a storage room for a large number of weapons and ammunition was found in Malkhasyan’s house, as well as different types of machine-guns, automatic guns, “Mukha” brand name bombers, “Strella” zenith guns, many grenades, target guns, tens of thousands of bullets with different diameters, etc.
According to members of the “Armenian Volunteers Union” organization, Vahan Aronyan (“Uncle Vanik”) was well-known because he had a high reputation during the war. “Uncle Vanik’s” friends explain why he had so many weapons and ammunition, assuring that he had collected those weapons during the years of the war. As for NA deputy Hmayak Hovhannisyan, who was one of the active defendants of Zhirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan, told “168 Hours” that those weapons were not the weapons that “Uncle Vanik” was left with after the years of the war, rather he had been collecting weapons during the past couple of years because, according to Hmayak Hovhannisyan, collecting weapons was “Uncle Vanik’s” hobby, just like some people collect stamps or other items. Hmayak Hovhannisyan also told “168 Hours” that all the villagers knew that Vahan Aronyan had a storage room for weapons.
“I myself have found out information about that man and the activists of the “Defense of Liberated Lands” organization have told me that that villager has a craving for keeping weapons. It’s a hobby and a rather strange one at at, but there are people who like to collect different weapons. Sometimes that turns into a mania,” says H. Hovhannisyan, adding that, despite all that, the NSS still has to prove whether or not there is a tie between “Uncle Vanik’s” hobby and the arrests of Zhirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan.
“True, there were weapons found in Aronyan’s house, but he didn’t take part in the meeting of the “Armenian Volunteers’ Union”. Just the fact that Zhirair was a member of the team as a soldier during the war doesn’t mean that he had anything to do with Aronyan’s weapon collection.”
Hovhannisyan claims that he not only doesn’t think that it is right to collect weapons, but also he doesn’t accept that as a hobby because, according to him, a weapon can only be kept legally. But Hovhannisyan calls on everyone to not forget about his innocence and not tie Vahan Aronyan’s collection of weapons with Zhirair Sefilyan without any proofs because the weapons were “found in a distant village with someone who both the villagers and the National Security Service officials knew. Everyone knew that that person was collecting weapons.” Hovhannisyan even reminisced about his college years and Marshal Hovhannes Baghramyan who had personally told him how one of his colonels had built a bunker after World War II, believing that the Third World War was inevitable.
“So, this is also the result of the psychology of war-a villager was collecting weapons. We must understand that. But it’s wrong to say that those weapons are also Zhirair’s weapons. It takes years to collect the weapons left after the war; however they need to be collected. Some Armenians raise another issue: what happened to the weapons that they used to fire on the streets of Yerevan? Armenia’s army has rules and regulations and no soldier should have any weapon,” says Hmayak Hovhannisyan, assuring that the arrest of Vahan Aronyan didn’t disappoint him about the defense of Zhirair Sefilyan.
“I don’t know. They told me that the National Security Service knew about the weapons’ storage room a long time ago but for some reason, they suddenly decided to arrest him now. That’s why I say that there is a hypothesis that Aronyan is innocent and the court should decide who is to blame and who is not. I don’t regret defending Zhirair and believe that his role on the defense of the liberated lands is necessary and may help the authorities be more consistent when it comes to protecting Armenia’s national interests,” added Hovhannisyan.
According to “A1+”, Zhirair Sefilyan’s attorney Vahe Grigoryan assured that Vahan Aronyan had rather good ties with the National Security Service, the Police of Armenia, the Defense Ministry and “always used his contacts in order to set rules and regulations in the regions of Armenia on the border. He can unite the people of his home village of Lusarat at any given time and work with the Russian border keepers in order to punish trespassers. Vahan Aronyan has done many things for revealing the Armenian-Turkish border trespassers. The Lusarat village has always been in the center of attention of Armenia and Russian border keepers. The presence of a similar arsenal shouldn’t have surprised the National Security Service,” said Vahe Grigoryan. Grigoryan also mentioned that “Uncle Vanik” was awarded the Land Defender Volunteers’ Union medal in 2000 for his service for the Homeland and the Marshal Baghramian medal in 2005. The Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has also thanked “Uncle Vanik” for his services. In 1994, Vahan Aronyan was given an award by the Supreme Council presidency of Nagorno Karabakh and another award by President of Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan in 2001.
Zhirair Sefilyan’s attorney also mentioned that Zhirair and Vahan Aronyan had both fought in the Karabakh war and Aronyan was in the battalion under the command of Zhirair Sefilyan before the liberation of Shushi in 1992. However, according to Vahe Grigoryan, after the war Zhirair and Vahan didn’t meet as often as they used to and only met once or twice a year.
“Vahan never told Zhirair how many weapons or how much ammunition he had and Zhirair never proposed working together in an NGO. Aronyan always says that he knows nothing about social or political work and that he is just a soldier,” said Zhirair Sefliyan’s attorney Vahe Grigoryan to “A1+”, assuring that his client has closer ties with his soldier friends; however the National Security Service investigated his house in particular because they knew that he had weapons. Vahe Grigoryan says that the Armenian authorities did the wrong thing by arresting “Uncle Vanik”.
“They’re trying to show some kind of misconstrued tie between Vahan Aronyan and Zhirair Sefilyan, however Aronyan will never testify against Sefilyan and tell the truth. He has his principles and has refused to give in to the authorities several times,” said Vahe Grigoryan.