After the assassination attempt on President of Karabagh Arkadi Ghukassyan on March 22, 2000, well-known Hamlet Ghushchyan produced a film entitled “King of Heaven and Hell”, which had to do with the assassination attempt, the preceding events and the aftermath.
Let’s not talk about what sport reporter Hamlet Ghushchyan had to do with all that. I don’t think it’s necessary to say that the film is based on one thing-to prove that Samvel Babayan really organized the assassination. Now it’s time to confess and that was exactly what Mr. Ghushchyan tried to do.
So, five years after producing the film, it turns out that the information in the film is “phony and misinterpreted”. Although Hamlet Ghuschyan apologized to Samvel Babayan and TV viewers, however he threw most of the blame on the people who had given him the information. Those people were the “Chief police of Artsakh-headed by Chief Prosecutor of Artsakh Mavrik Ghukasyan”.
Of course, there is nothing wrong about Mr. Ghushchyan deciding to be frank judging from “journalistic etiquette”. But he would be fully justified for his action if we were to be certain that nothing besides the feeling of remorse had influenced him. However, there are few issues, which force us to look at this from a different perspective.
First of all, there were different opinions about the organizers back then. People’s opinions were divided into two. One side blamed Samvel Babyan, while the other didn’t believe that Samvel Babayan had organized the assassination attempt. It appears that Mr. Ghushchyan wasn’t familiar with the opinions.
That’s kind of strange, considering the fact that he used to try to solve people’s problems with his “Day” television program. Hamlet Ghushchyan had to realize that not every film can be produced based on the facts given by police officers. You must have an objective approach when filming a documentary. Although they say that there was a try to get Samvel Babayan’s allies to express their opinions, however Hamlet Ghushchyan claims that he “didn’t find them”. He obviously didn’t look hard enough. I would just like to mention the fact that at the time, many Armenian presses were able to find people who would go against the official data.
Another interesting thing is that in his speech, Hamlet Ghushchyan mentioned the name of the chief prosecutor of Karabagh a couple of times as the one who had given him the wrong information. However, there is no hint about him being the one to blame. Even if that is so, does Mr. Ghushchyan really think that the chief prosecutor would have done it on his own?
Another thing-why did the TV reporter suddenly “remember” this? Hamlet Ghushchyan explains that he was simply out of the country. Although he assures that he personally took the initiative of hosting a press conference, however he indirectly confessed that that was not really the case.
“Back then, I had announced that I was ready to give airtime to people with opposite opinions and arguments. They contacted me and told me that there are such arguments,” says Mr. Ghushchyan and presented the 12200800 reference provided by Samvel Babayan. After research, Hamlet Ghushchyan had realized that, for example, there were actually less than 80 cars featured in the film and the prices for jewelry and diamonds were less.
After analysis, he “realized” (of course with S. Babyan’s help-B.T.) that he had been cheated and decided to confess his sin…especially since he “had just revealed Samvel Babayan for himself” and “admires him as a chevalier”.
His public confession took place during his hosted press conference, but that was just the beginning. We will soon witness the long interview with Samvel Babayan. The interview is scheduled to air on Hamlet Ghushchyan’s new television program and most surprisingly, on “R” television. However, things are not too good between owner of “R” television network Hrant Vartanyan and Samvel Babayan. It appears that they have “conciliated”… According to H. Ghushchyan, he returned to Armenia upon request of Hrant Vartanyan and is going to be appointed as director of the new “Grand Media” company.
His confession will end with H. Ghushchyan’s new film, which will be called “Samvel Babayan: a side profile”.
It’s obvious that this will be totally different and it’s quite possible that H. Ghushchyan will be able to come up with a better title. He assured that the film has nothing to do with the upcoming elections and he plans on presenting the film to TV viewers after the elections.
But, for some reason, it seems as if something won’t work out for Hamlet Ghushchyan this time either because he might, for example, forget to include the opinions of those against Samvel Babayan. Let’s just hope that nothing serious happens in Armenia’s internal political life until then. It is worth mentioning that investigators from Armenia’s Chief Prosecution have also worked on revealing the case and currently work at the prosecution. Besides that, after the case, current chief prosecutor of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepyan had visited Stepanakert. Hovsepyan is one of the few that actually knows the details and facts about the case.