Gurgen Markaryan was born in 1978, graduated from the #122 middle
school and later went on to study at the Yerevan State University of
Architecture. He has graduated with a bachelor’s degree in
architecture. After serving in the army for a short period, he came to
the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia to work as an
official for the administrative staff of the vice minister. He has been
recognized as a lieutenant. On January 11, 2004, Gurgen flew to
Budapest to take the three year English course for NATO. On February
19, just one month after his arrival, he was killed by an Azeri
murderer at midnight.
We Armenians all considered the murder of Gurgen as the continuation of
the Armenian Genocide. We look to rest of the world, thinking that it
will classify this as an act of “genocide”, but what about the
phenomenon in general?
Perhaps we don’t even fully understand why the murder took place. The
only people who can talk about the results and the pain are Gurgen’s
relatives, however, they do not make any comment. They are silent
because the only thing that concerned the government was to organize an
elegant funeral in honor of Gurgen and nothing else…Gurgen’s family
lives in a little house in the Malatia-Sebastia district. Besides the
fact that there is no warmth in the house because of the death of
Gurgen, there is also no job, life is difficult and the pension keeps
on getting late.
The Markaryan family used to live in a house on Leningradyan street,
but after the death of their son Gurgen, the family lives in a little
wooden cottage in the Malatia district since their former house
belonged to Gurgen’s niece. So, Gurgen’s brother and parents could not
live in a house where everything brought back memories of Gurgen and
caused pain. Sergey, who is the former neighbor of the Markaryan
family, remembers Gurgen: “Gurgen was someone else. We were not that
close together, but he was friends with my son. You should have seen
how he used to blush when he talked, get confused and I would always
stare in wonder at him. There are very few young and disciplined men
like Gurgen these days. Gurgen used to come to our house to see my
grandchild. You should have seen how that strong man could love a child
so tenderly. I saw him before he went to Budapest. He was very happy.
He told me: ‘Uncle Sergey, as soon as I come back from Budapest, I am
going to get married so that I can have my own kid and love him.’ I
don’t understand how that family got torn apart. I see his dad and I
get heartfelt. He has grown so old and his hair has whitened. It is
very hard to bury a child like Gurgen. Gurgen and his brother were both
pure and wise individuals. I remember when they were little, they used
to hold their grandmother’s hand and take her wherever she needed to go
and brought her back. We all looked at them and were stunned. Everyone
says that we are living in hard times nowadays. How can that be? How
can we show such indifference after that death? Does the government
only care about organizing a funeral? You should have seen how the
funeral was organized. There were no cars, the bouquets were put in the
car belonging to the Ministry of Defense which looked like a cart, the
smell of the car spread towards the bouquets. Isn’t it a shame? How can
we let that happen? It is humiliating. If you knew Gurgen, you would
know how painful it is to see that.”
The President of the “Gurgen Markaryan” NGO Vahag Asatryan is amazed to
see how indifferent society and in general, the authorities are. After
Gurgen’s death, there has not been one person to donate 10 dram to the
fund in honor of his name. It has already been 7-8 months, however,
nobody has even thought about donating 10 drams. A couple of days ago
somebody transferred 25,000 drams to the fund. The NGO plans on
constructing a park and monument in honor of Gurgen with the money
collected. What’s interesting is to see how millions of dollars get
collected for the Azeri murderer, but nothing for our compatriot?…
Gurgen’s family lives in bad conditions. None of the family members
work and the government does not even lend a helping hand. According to
sources, the family members do not wish to talk to the mass media about
their situation. Despite that, through the efforts of President of the
“Gurgen Markaryan” NGO V. Asatryan, we visited the Markaryan household
which doesn’t really look like a home. It is just pathetic to hear
about Gurgen Markaryan the national hero and then to see how his family
lives. It is a wooden cottage and besides the fact that there is the
psychological factor at hand, the house does not even have any heating.
The family lives in a house where the temperature is equivalent to the
cold atmosphere. There is a sofa, a table and Gurgen’s pictures in the
house.
While looking at her son’s picture, Gurgen’s mother was crying and
telling us how Gurgen’s brother had gone out into the forest and found
a baby wolf after Gurgen’s death. Since Gurgen means baby wolf in
Persian, the family decided to keep the wolf and take care of it. The
baby wolf has grown up and now they call it “Gurgen”. They keep
“Gurgen” in their little yard with Gurgen’s dog. The father said:
“Gurgen used to take care of the small dogs. The first thing he would
ask when calling from Budapest was to see how Koti was doing. He really
loved that dog.” On the day of Gurgen’s death, his father had fed the
dog, but the dog had refused to eat. He adds: “There had never been a
time when the dog refused to eat. I kept thinking to myself maybe it
was sick or what did I do to the dog to make it not eat. Now, it just
looks sadly at the picture of Gurgen, as if it understands what has
happened. The dog kept looking at Gurgen’s picture on his
birthday….Well, this dog and wolf are like our grandchildren. My Gurgen
was a very strong man, he was respected by everyone. What can I say?
What else can I say? Whatever I say will be a compliment to my son.”
The mother told us that both brothers had served in the army at
Horizdon. “We got old just by waiting for those two years to pass until
they came back home. We used to spend time with each other every day
with fear in our minds, we thought that nothing could happen. But who
knew? Gurgen studied well in school, he was a good student at the
university and a hard working individual. After finding about him going
to Budapest, we wondered how he had gotten where he was and how they
chose him out of all the others. Before leaving, his father told him to
be careful. Gurgen said that he knew…..No matter how much the
Markaryans did not want to express themselves, in any case, they did
feel a little offended.
Gurgen’s father claims: “I don’t need attention, neither does Vahe…but
the mother deserves to be cared for, at least visiting her. After all,
it is not only about giving out Gurgen Markaryan’s name on television.
I will continue living my life with my dog and wolf. I will even live
my life up in the clouds, but what about respect? What about attention?
I don’t expect anything from anyone because I know how this government
is from the first day it started, I know how it is. But our sadness and
loneliness only belongs to us. The Turkish mass media had spread some
rumors that Gurgen’s father had been present at the trial hearing and
had actively spread his propaganda. Was I present during the court
hearing? If I had some money, then there would be no problem at all. I
would surely participate. It doesn’t matter to me whether the court
will sentence the murderer to life in prison or deport him to his
homeland. All I want is for him to be killed. That is my only hope.
Nobody can stop me from having that revenge inside of me. Anyone who
knows Gurgen knows that a Turk could secretly kill an Armenian during
the night, only a Turk could do something bad to him. This is because
Gurgen was stronger than he was and that a Turk would never do
something like that so that it could be revealed.