Family Members Set Themselves Afire Outside Presidential Residence in Armenia

A grandmother and her four grandchildren set themselves on fire outside the Presidential Residence in Yerevan, in an act related to the murder of a relative, ArmeniaNow reported today.

The five victims were taken to hospital. None of the injuries is believed to be life-threatening.

Gyulizar Avdalyan, the grandmother is in worst condition, with burns over 15 percent of her body. The children, ranging in age from 11-15 were burned mostly on their wrists and faces.

The act of self immolation was apparently to bring attention to their complaint that the wrong man is being held in the death of Qyaram Avdalyan, son of Gyulizar and father of the children.

Qyaram Avdalyan, 42, was brutally murdered in the village of Lchashen, Gegharquniq region on November 6. A 72-year old disabled shepherd is accused of the murder.

The Head of Armenia’s National Union of Yezids (the family belongs to that national minority) Aziz Tamoyan told Armenianow that the family of the victim accuses another person of Qyaram’s murder.

“They accuse the Head of Lchashen village, with whom Qyaram had a disagreement concerning some lands he owned,” Tamoyan said.

The Avdalyans were among about 30 members of the Yezid community (mostly from the same village) gathered at the presidential residence since 11 am with a demand of a fair investigation of the murder. Three representatives of the Yezid community met with RA Prosecutor General Avghan Hovsepyan after today’s incident, presumably to demand that a new investigation be conducted.

Eighteen years ago this day (December 7, 1988) became a black number on the Armenian calendar.

At about 11:40 a.m. the earth convulsed in No. 8 earthquake in the northern provinces of Armenia, and when the shaking stopped, some 50,000 were dead, 140,000 injured and 1 million left homeless.

The northern cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor- once prominent industrial centers – became disaster zones. About 170 manufacturing enterprises with 82,000 employees stopped operating; a considerable part of the population migrated.

Nearly two decades later, the “disaster zone” is now referred to as “the development zone”, where even now ruined settlements have not been fully rebuilt.

According to government statistics, Shirak is the poorest of Armenia’s 12 provinces. Some 50 percent of the population is considered poor, nearly doubling the national average of 29.8 percent.

According to a Shirak provincial government report last year, 13,228 apartments have been built and reconstructed against 20,612 ruined in 1988.

Officially there are 4,275 families in Gyurmi and 430 in surrounding villages still deprived of a homes by the earthquake.

Gyumri natives are known for being hard-working, witty and jocular. But the disaster of 18 years created a wound that has not yet scarred. And on this day – though no longer a day of national mourning – the minds of Armenia turn to a dark history of loss.

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