‘He is responsible for our 5,000 casualties’: Citizen who vandalized Azgaldyan statue comments on his act

On April 14, reports emerged that an unknown individual had vandalized the statue of national hero Leonid Azgaldyan, damaging the hero’s face.

Hraparak.am reports that today, the citizen who vandalized the statue visited their editorial office. He often comes to the ‘Hraparak’ office and nearly always complains about the actions of law enforcement, alleging that they do not respond to his requests, do not initiate criminal cases, and do not punish investigators and police officers.

This time, he had come to complain about the police, stating that he was taken to the Central Police Department and held in detention for three days, during which he was beaten by the officers of the criminal investigation department. He is now lamenting that the police have not provided him with a referral for a forensic examination and have not initiated a criminal case.

The news outlet asked why he was detained. Initially, he refused to disclose the reason for his detention, saying, ‘I don’t want to say.’ However, when informed that they could not publish until the reason for his detention was disclosed, he confessed, ‘I damaged Azgaldyan’s statue.’

It became clear that he had been held in solitary confinement for three days and had just been released from the station yesterday. When asked why he took such action, he replied, ‘I broke Leonid Azgaldyan's nose because he is a traitor to the nation, and that’s why he was killed. If he and his kind had not stuck their noses here and there, there wouldn’t have been a war like this. He is responsible for the 5,000 casualties we had in 2020. He was a traitor to the nation and the homeland, and that’s why he was killed. Do you know who killed him? His friends.’

The Investigative Committee informed the news outlet that Karen Khachatryan, a 58-year-old resident of Yerevan, has been released, as a non-leaving signature was taken against him, and the case is under preliminary investigation.