Gyumri mayor Vardan Ghukasyan’s son, Spartak Ghukasyan, gave himself up to the police. Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General informed us about this yesterday. Spartak Ghukasyan has been under investigation since May 24. He participated in the May 20 shooting in Gyumri. There are three other detainees in connection with the shooting: Kolia Ghukasyan, a Gyumri Alderman member and Vardan Ghukasyan’s nephew, Telman Karapetyan, and Norayr Soloyan. Rustam Sargsyan and Tigran Gasparyan are being searched for. The younger Ghukasyan turned himself in the day after his controversial father was summoned to a meeting in Yerevan with Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepyan. The Gyumri mayor, who had claimed to be unaware of his son’s whereabouts, was “offered” to hand over the suspect to law-enforcement authorities within 24 hours. He was reportedly received by President Robert Kocharyan earlier this week. It’s not yet known what the President and the Prosecutor General promised Ghukasyan for him to turn his son in to the Police, as Ghukasyan held a mass sheep sacrifice (matagh) in Gyumri last Sunday. Ghukasyan however claimed that he didn’t have any meetings with the Prosecutor General of Armenia, Aghvan Hovsepyan.
