Yesterday head of Nalbandyan village community of Armavir region, member of “Prosperous Armenia” party Roland Mkrtchyan was killed in the yard of his house. Before joining the “Prosperous Armenia” he had been a member of the Armenian Republican party and was re-elected in his position in 2006. During the elections some people threatened the head of the electoral commission and didn’t let him participate in the vote counting process. Yesterday our correspondent tried to talk to the relatives of Roland Mkrtchyan, but they refused them since they said they were talking to the Police.
The murderers asked the village head to come outside and shot his neck with a hunter’s rifle; when Mkrtchyan fell, they fired a bullet to this head just to make sure that he’s dead. Then they fired into the air and left the scene of the crime. Mkrtchyan’s wife came out after hearing the sounds of the shots, but wasn’t able to see the murderers because the car had already gone. R. Mkrtchyan’s house is located on the outskirts of the village and is surrounded by homes, so it was easy for the murderers to easily do what they had to do because there would hardly be anyone around at that hour.
Roland Mkrtchyan was reelected village head of the Nalbandyan village this past July. He was a former Republican, but then, according to sources, was removed from the Republican party due to the fact that he was working for the “Prosperous Armenia” party. He was already a member of the “Prosperous Armenia” party during his second-term as village head. On the night of the murder, the villagers gathered near the home of the murdered were spreading rumors that the assassination was based on political order. The villagers of Nalbandyan excluded the possibility that the murderers could have been from the village.
“That’s impossible. Roland was a very modest man and was highly respected by the villagers. He has done many good deeds for the villagers and was the kind of leader that actually led the people. He backed the village and the villagers backed him,” say villagers of Nalbandyan.
The Nalbandyan villagers refused to express their opinions or give out any information out loud. In response to our question as to whether this was an ordered assassination, they only shook their heads and said: “Everything will be revealed in your Yerevan”.
According to “Lragir”, Roland Mkrtchyan had bad relations with former region head of the Armavir region Albert Heroyan and Nahapet Gevorgyan, who was a deputy elected from Armavir. Referring to the “Prosperous Armenia” party regional headquarters in the Armavir territorial branch, “Lragir” also wrote that the former region head Albert Heroyan or N. Gevorgyan could have ordered the murder. During a telephone conversation, press correspondent of the “Prosperous Armenia” party Baghdasar Mheryan denied that rumor, mentioning that there is still no basis to suspect that the assassination was a political order and was perpetrated by the deputy from Armavir or the former region head.
“Let’s wait until the investigation ends and see the results,” said B. Mheryan, adding that the opinions of the “Prosperous Armenia” members at the Armavir regional headquarters were “absurd and personal”.
A case has already been brought up at the Armavir regional prosecution based on the first parts of the 235th and 104th articles of the criminal code of Armenia. Some suspects have been questioned. Forensic medicine, forensic biological, forensic tracing experiments have been scheduled.