INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
marked the edge of the Tsarist empire.Then, as now, the position was a strategic asset
On one side, the city of Gyumri, with its buildings made of black stone, extends across a vast plain
meant Armenians welcomed this outpost of Russian military influence.But geopolitical tides are changing
their historic ally.Officials have initiated a dizzying geopolitical realignment
have produced complicated feelings among locals.As a trial over the most recent of these crimes nears its end, those involved feel their
Ottoman Empire in the 1830s, Russia built an imposing fortress in the hills west of town
ability to deploy quickly from the base was believed to be a deterrent to an Azerbaijani takeover of the Armenia-backed breakaway region of
A Russian Orthodox church constructed a century and a half ago still flies the Russian and Armenian flags.A controversial historyFor nearly
as long as it has existed the base has been a magnet for controversy, owing to a series of crimes that have strained relations with
locals.There was the time in 1999 when two soldiers opened fire near a local market, killing two.In 2013 two boys in a neighboring town
found and accidentally set off leftover training ordinance in a field.And many Armenians recall with horror the 2015 Avetisyan killings,
people who were involved with the case told The Moscow Times.Members of the Avetisyan family were buried in a graveyard in the countryside
near Gyumri.Brawley BensonLocals were outraged
search for justiceAnahit Ghukasyan remembers how people started to lock their doors in the days after the Avetisyan killings
She never could have imagined that a similar series of events would befall her family.Her story begins almost four years later
It was a morning in early December 2018, like any other
She and her mother, 57-year-old Julieta Ghukasyan, had left the family home in central Gyumri early to go to their jobs as street
cleaners.Anahit was at work when she got a call
It was her neighbor: Did Anahit know why the police were at the house?Anahit rushed home, where the police had been questioning her
There had been an incident, they said, and her mother was injured.At the hospital, for reasons she still does not understand, she was not
allowed to see her mother
named Andrei Razgildeyev.Like in the Avetisyan killings, there was no discernable motive
Razgildeyev had been drinking and, spotting Julieta walking down the street, decided to engage in a spontaneous act of violence.But to
Why, according to her, does a CCTV video appear to show Razgildeyev hiding behind trees before the killing? Why did he target her mother?In
an interview at her home not far from where the killing took place, a neighborhood where the laughter of children walking home from school
under mysterious circumstances.The only memento she has to remember her is a portrait, professionally done but fading with age, looking out
the Russian side kept him at the military base
Eventually, they requested that he attend hearings virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.But he has not been seen in person since, raising
journalist, thought something should be done to prevent such crimes from happening again
At the time he was a city councilor and suggested installing a barbed wire fence and security cameras around the base.It was not much, but
Barseghyan had made similar recommendations after the Avetisyan killings that ultimately did not materialize
away in the neighboring town of Vanadzor, Sakunts, the human rights defender, sat in his office on a clear summer day in 2024, his mind
Razgildeyev, Russian authorities wanted to keep Permyakov in detention at the base and try him in a Russian court; it was only after a major
Permyakov to Russia in 2017 to serve out his sentence
In 2010, Armenia and Russia agreed to extend the lease of the base until 2044
Even though relations are deteriorating, Kochinyan, the security expert, predicted that the base will be among the last vestiges of Armenia
few answers.Over six years, she has grown skeptical that justice can be achieved.Last fall, at her request, the Shirak regional court began
the trial anew, something she hopes will lead to a fair outcome
