I Don’t Know Who He Could Have Disturbed: Alaverdyan on Koutoyan

Larisa Alaverdyan, former Human Rights Defender of Armenia and president of the NGO "Against Legal Arbitrary," believes that the death of former head of the National Security Service, Gevorg Koutoyan, is a bad sign for the Armenian statehood.

"This is a very serious incident for Armenian reality. He was quite young, a professional in his field. It is difficult to assess the situation. This is a very sad incident. I don’t know who he could have disturbed," said the human rights defender in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.

The body of the former NSS chief, Gevorg Koutoyan, was found today in an apartment on Paruyr Sevak Street in Yerevan, with gunshot wounds. There is no official version regarding the incident. Some media outlets report that he committed suicide, with a pistol and an empty bottle of cognac found near the body.

Alaverdyan drew parallels between the death of the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the former police chief Haik Harutyunyan.

"We see that quite established people who perform their duties before the state face such tragic endings. This is truly a bad trend and a bad sign for the state," she said.

In her opinion, the most frightening thing is that no one knows who will be the next target. She is confident that the country's authorities must ensure the safety of such individuals.

It is noteworthy that Koutoyan was 38 years old, married, and had one son. He was appointed as the head of the NSS on February 12, 2016, during the tenure of Serzh Sargsyan. His grandfather was a school principal, and Koutoyan was named after him. His grandmother and mother were also educators, while his father, Karen Koutoyan, is a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and the director of the Kanaker-Zeytun maternity hospital.