The pre-election is heating up in the city of Vardenis located in the region of Gegharkunik. On October 18th, mayor candidate of Vardenis Vartan Barseghyan warned the police about some shootings heard coming from a “Niva” car (35LO097) near his pre-election headquarters at 1:30 a.m. The care belongs to the mayor Valodya Khloyan.
The police officers arrived at the site with a “Niva” car and arrested the residents of Vardenis: Artur Sargsyan, Sasun Karapetyan, Armen Galstyan and Artak Andreasyan. According to the police officers, the young men were arrested on the account of committing hooligan acts. But what’s interesting though is that the investigators did not find any weapons belonging to the arrested men. According to the information given by the prosecutor of the Gegharkunik region V. Markaryan during an interview, they are collecting the evidence.
In addition, there are two coalition forces which will fight to win in the district elections in the region on October 23. There are two candidates so far-mayor, member of the Armenian Republican Party Valodya Khloyan and head of the “Ardshininvestbank”, and member of the “Rule of Law” political party Vartan Barseghyan, who is the brother of the regional chief of the Gegharkunik region.
During a telephone conversation, Valodya Khloyan denied the abovementioned and claimed that there had been no shooting in Vardenis: “The people are just spreading rumors. We have a “Niva” car. The car was in the middle of being repaired and a shot was heard while pumping the gas. After pressing the gas for about two-three times, there was a sound much like a shot of a gun. The candidate who heard that from his pre-election headquarters had probably mistaken that for a shot. He had immediately called the police and they had arrested the individuals in the car. They took them to the police headquarters, checked all of them, and then released them after finding out that it was all nonsense. The police even apologized to them,” said Valodya Khloyan in regard to the events which took place on the night of October 18. However, the mayor did confess that the residents of Vardenis in the car were under the influence of alcohol. As for the competing candidate Vartan Barseghyan, he has gone to the police claiming that his opponent had put down his reputation-according to Khloyan, Barseghyan has no chance of getting elected and he is just imagining things: “How low can you get? That is something which was going on in like 1937. They want to trick the people. The regional chief and his colleagues want to play around with Valod’s Khlo (this is how they refer to Valodya Khloyan in Vardenis-A.G.) reputation, but they can’t get anywhere with that,” said the mayor candidate. However, the regional chief of the Gegharkunik region and brother of the mayor candidate Stepan Barseghyan claims that there have been shootings. “They did not shoot at anyone. They just shot in the air,” said Barseghyan.
In any case, whether or not there have been shootings in Vardenis, the police will soon find out. However, it may turn out that Vartan Barseghyan’s pre-election campaign members might have mistaken the sounds coming from the car as shootings in an attempt to kill them; especially when the situation in Vardenis is pretty tense for the time being.