Head of Lori marz Dzyunashogh village community Avag Vardanyan passed away on November 9 at about 9.30. His relatives found him killed in their own cattle-shed. He was shot by an automatic gun. Police officers arrived there and found the gun not far from him. Though police officers say that they have investigated that case and this was a suicide, his relatives and neighbors don’t agree with them and don’t believe.
He was born in 1950 in Azerbaijan and then moved to this village with his family in 1989. He had been working as the village community head since 1995 and was much respected by village citizens. One of them said: “He took care of all of us, one by one. I don’t believe that Avag could have committed suicide, I think he was killed because he was a strong person and maybe someone was interested in his death”.
This village is close to the border and periodically people from the neighboring village in Azerbaijan stole animals from their village. According to villagers after Avag was elected as the village community head these kinds of things stopped. They say that this was connected with Avag: “He knew that we were neighbors with this village in Azerbaijan. Though there was conflict between us, but he kept good relations with them”. He had a lot of friends in the neighboring villages and kept contact with them. Due to his contacts he didn’t let anyone steal animals from the village. “Wherever something was lost the police of Tashir called Avag and asked him to tell them who had stolen those animals, because he was in good relations with citizens of Azerbaijan”.
“But the last days he was worried. We had never locked the door of our house at nights, but he started to lock the door. When one of our children was missing even for one hour he started to worry”, -says his wife. But no one knows the reason for that. He didn’t go to work the day before he was killed. This was suspicious too. “He said that he had no work that day. But it is impossible, he always could find something to do”, -said his wife. “That day he woke up early in the morning and went to the cattle-shed to feed animals. We finished our work there and I came back home. About twenty minutes later I asked Misha (Misha is their relative that helped them with their works) why Avag hadn’t come. Then I went to see what the matter was”, -says Aida. They found Avag near the cattle-shed sitting on the ground with closed eyes. “I called him, he didn’t answer. I thought that he hadn’t slept those days and had a nap when sitting”, -said his wife. No one heard any shooting sounds. Avag’s relatives think that he couldn’t shoot himself because if he did so he would not remain in the same sitting position. His mouth and eyes were closed. No one had seen the gun that they found there before. “We had a hunter’s gun, but we hadn’t used it for about ten years”, -says his wife. His relatives can’t find anything that would make him commit suicide. They say Avag was strong enough not to commit suicide. A policeman from Tashir said that he knew Avag, he said Avag was a strong person, but said that people have to be strong for this kind of action too. Maybe something was connected with Avag’s family, because he was afraid that something could happen to them. But it is absurd to say that a person that has enough money, has a good position and is respected may commit suicide only because of some small reasons. Still policemen think that he made suicide.
Villagers feel very bad after the death of the head of their community. On the referendum day most of them said: “Avag always helped us with our choice, now we can’t make any choice without his help”. Villagers think that citizens of their neighboring village in Azerbaijan may start stealng animals from their village. The same day nine horses were stolen from the village, three of which were Avag’s horses. Due to the efforts of villagers and policemen the horses were returned the same day: thieves were investigated and left the horses on the way and ran away. Villagers think that this theft and the death of Avag are connected.