Armenians - A Favorite Target For Moscow Skinheads

According to statistics, among other ethnic minorities the Russian Nazi more often attack Armenians.

Saturday incident in one of Moscow underground stations resulting in the murder of 17-year-old Vigen Abrahamyants has aroused a wave of protest in the Armenian community. The fact that the murder was committed on the eve of the 91st anniversary of Armenian genocide and immediately after Nazis celebrated Adolph Hitler's birthday, gave a special coloring to the incident. Law enforcing organs keep on insisting that it was just a domestic crime and did not have any nationalistic motives. Is it true or not? Further investigation will show. In any case it is obvious that lately Armenians have been attacked by Russian skinheads more often than other ethnic minorities.
PanARMENIAN.Net - It is evident that in Russia nationalistic crimes tend to rise in number. This can be proved by the non-official statistics tracked by Russian social structures. On April 6 Russian "Sova" information-analytic center published a report on ethnic hatred crimes committed from December 2005 to February 2006. The report was prepared by candidate of historical sciences Galina Kojevnikova. According to the report, more than 40 attacks on foreigners have been registered in Russia during the past three winter months. During only 90 days 91 foreigners have become victims of skinheads. 6 of the victims were killed. 3 people were killed already after summing up of the report. As compared with the same period of last year the number of attacks has risen by 25 percents. Those are only well known cases. But how many unknown cases there can be? It is noteworthy that all the registered incidents took place in Moscow. However, that does not mean that in the provinces skinheads are more "humane" to foreigners. The thing is that in the capital nationalistic crimes receive more publicity.
The report of "Sova" information-analytic center allows noticing that recently the aggression of skinheads has been spreading mainly on Armenians. According to the report since the beginning of the year racists have killed 7 people, 5 of which were Armenians. (Whereas Armenians make up 10 percents among "non-Russians". For instance in Russia there are more Azeris than Armenians). Of course we can view those incidents as coincidence and refer to the fact that in the majority of cases criminals did not even know the nationality of their victims. But there are already too much of those coincidences. Why do the skinheads attack Armenians more often? Maybe because Armenians make skinheads more nervous because of their achievements? The prosperity of many Russian Armenians is sometimes really striking. However we still cannot exclude the possibility of instructions from forces which patron and coordinate the actions of skinhead bands. In this respect, especially suspicious is the fact that attacks on Armenians became more often exactly on the eve of the genocide anniversary.
Official structures treat the statistics with distrust. They have their own statistics. According to the official version, since the beginning of 2006 11 attacks for national motives have been registered in Russia. According to law enforcing organs - four times more. Anyway, it is hard to deny facts. The fact that five Armenians have been killed since the beginning of 2006 can be proved. In all the cases there were evidences allowing speaking about racist motives of the committed crimes. Here are the examples of concrete cases, mentioned in the report of "Sova" analytical center. 13-year-old Evgeny Baghdasaryan was killed in Moscow on January 7. His body with 34 knife wounds was found in the street. On January 9 on the Caucasian boulevard to the South of Moscow, four unknown people dressed in short black jackets, black jeans and army boots knifed 52-year-old Hayk Dolukhanyan who died of loss of blood. On February 15 in the central part of Moscow unknown people killed a 29-year-old citizen of Armenia who had 14 knife wounds on his body. On March 16, five teenagers beat 23-year-old Robert Feroyan and his sister Maya in the Monino-Moscow train carriage and pushed the out in Tayinskaya railway station. Robert died of 7 knife wounds. His sister is seriously wounded. The arrested criminals had Fascist literature. The latest case was the murder of Vigen Abrahamyants and again national intolerance in considered as a possible motive. By the way, the Abrahamyants family has already come across the so-called national intolerance. In January 1990 the Abrahamyants ran away from Azerbaijan massacres of Armenians were still under way.


This was the statistics of murders. The list of seriously wounded is much longer. Let's bring several examples. On December 5, at 19:30 on Polbyn Street in Moscow criminals stabbed a 34-year-old Armenian. Late in January two students - an Armenian and an Azeri, were severely beaten by skinheads near a dormitory in Yoshkar-Ola. On the 28th of March in the center of Yekaterinburgh three teenagers beat two Armenian born people. And the latest case was the attack on the Secretary of the Cinematographers Union of Armenia Michael Dovlatyan. Law enforcing bodies are doing their best to class the nationalistic crimes in the category of common crimes. The abovementioned incident on Polbyn Street is a perfect proof of the idea. Witnesses say that the attackers were close-cut, in jeans and army boots. Thus, they looked just like skinheads. Anyway, the Russian police keep on insisting that the incident was just a robbery attack without any national motive. In her interview to "Caucasian network" Internet portal the author of "Sova" analytical center report Galina Kojevnikova mentioned about the deliberate striving of law enforcing bodies to conceal real motives of the crimes. As an example proving the fact, Kojevnikova mentioned the judicial proceedings in Sverdlovsk district. On December 7 the Judge announced the verdict of teenagers who in May 2005 killed three Armenian workers. According to investigation materials after committing the crime murderers returned to a cafe where in the presence of witnesses they announced to have "cleaned up" the city. Despite this fact, the court did not consider the ethnic hatred factor in the crime committed.
So what can Russian Armenians do to resist the rising threat? Shall they rely on the police and hope that they will protect them? Few people believe in the potential of police. Moreover, the leaders of the Armenian community of Russia have grounds to suppose that skinheads are directly or indirectly patronized by representatives of state power. On Monday in the interview to Russian journalists the president of the Union of Russian Armenians Ara Abrahamyan said that the outburst of the Nazi would be impossible if they were not supported by certain officials and employees of law enforcing bodies. In the near future the Union of Russian Armenians is going to organize a round-table discussion with the participation of representatives of other ethnic communities to discuss the current situation and work out measures of resistance against Nazism. Meanwhile, some Moscow Armenians have already determined to go for radical measures. On Monday they expressed their protest by blocking Noviy Arbat Street.

It is worth mentioning that similar attacks are organized not only on ethnic Armenians having Russian citizenship, but also citizens of Armenia. Thus, it is not only the problem of the Armenian community but also official Yerevan and political leaders of our country have to express their reaction. Racism murders cannot but stir up anti-Russian moods, which have recently spread in Armenia. Impunity of the Nazi will bring to a point when more and more people in Yerevan will seek alternatives to the pro-Russian political orientation of our country. Like it or not, the problem is being politicalized and it seems that consideration of the issue on a political level is inevitable.
 Most popular in the section
Who is who in the web of so many Sargsyans
Split of opposition votes
 At focus
Yerevan to host fall session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

Yerevan to host fall session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering.

 More articles in this section
Main arguments of Armenia’s first President Next Karabakh proposals will be even worse
Bizarre election promises Church taxation and restoration of monasteries in Western Armenia
---