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On June 22, 2011, Zhora Hakobjanyan discovered the body of his son, Vahe Hakobjanyan, hanged in his garage. His father wonders why this could have happened as Vahe, had just established a new winery production and was beginning to see its outcomes.

Vahe’s father Zhora Hakobjanyan told us the details of the incident, “I phoned Vahe but he did not answer. I finished my work at 7:30 pm, so I went home and started looking for Vahe in the neighborhood. His friends told me they had not seen Vahe since 11 am. When I approached the garage around 8pm, I peeped through the key hole and saw the light was on. I saw Vahe standing.

The garage height is around 2 meters. There is no where one can hang themself there is just a place where you can get to a balcony. There was a military belt hanging and as if Vahe was standing… I looked to see if he was moving forward, but his head was down and at the point I felt something horrible had occurred, and thought my life was ruined.”  Vahe’s father immediately called the Department of Emergency Situations; a brigade arrived, cut open the door and immediately took the boy’s dead body to the mortuary. An investigator arrived at the crime scene, recorded the incident as a suicide and left.  The law enforcement body forgot about the incident until Vahe’s relatives got worried. The point is that Vahe’s father had identified a knife, medical gloves and handles cut from a woman’s handbag on the garage table. Who it was done by and why is not known yet, but the fact is that this evidence could cast a serious suspicion over the suicide version from the investigator. The condition of the garage basement could also give rise to suspicion, which was to be used as a future office for the Vine Company, where Vahe Hakobjanyan’s documents and possessions were being kept in a fire resistant safe. After the incident, his father discovered it was unlocked; all the documents were scattered around, and the wine production archive, ownership certificate, and the stamp, were missing. Zhora Hakobjanyan reported all these facts to the investigator of the case, but no site examination or investigation was carried out by the investigator.

Vahe’s father highly doubts the validity of the suicide version, because his son had been in a worse situation during the Artsakh War and had not lost his hope and would definitely not take such a drastic measure as suicide. Besides, he would leave a note, if he was to take such a measure, since he had underage children under his care. In order to have an idea about possible versions of Vahe Hakobjanyan’s death, we will present the following incidents and circumstances of the case.

Thirty-nine year old Vahe Hakobjanyan, Head of “Ethnikprod” LTD, decided to establish a small vine company in Areni Village in Vayots Dzor Region after he had participated in the liberation of his country. He had thought of creative ways to connect the Diaspora with Armenia by means of wine production. He applied to register a variety of wines with historical and patriotic names (Khachagogh, Hishatakaran). In his application addressed to the Department of Intellectual Property Trademarks and Industrial Samples, he explained the historical significance of those names. According to the traditional folklore of Vayots Dzor Region, the name of Khachagogh is given to intellectual and resolute people and since the wine was meant to be exported from Armenia, the Diaspora representatives would feel the warmth of a motherland and enjoy the symbol of strength via wines, which would promote their return to the motherland. However, his application was declined.  By the words of Vahe’s father, “those souvenir wines, although expensive, would attract the Diaspora and especially wine fans by their parchment label exterior and high quality wine. In the beginning, when Vahe wanted to set up the wine production, his peers from Polytechnic Institute provided financial aid by donating money to buy a winery in Aghavnadzor Village. Later he borrowed 7,000,000 AMD from “Armbusinessbank” to buy land and construct an underground factory for bottling of the wine with special technology and storage. Unfortunately, he did not manage to finish the construction of the factory, although he had elaborated his own income strategy since 2009.  He was storing the harvest from the winery in the village factory and, although it was small amounts, he was able to produce samples, which he would enter during international workshops and wine tasting contests. Vahe had achieved accomplishments from these international contests. However, during one of the international workshops, where other Armenian Companies were also representing their products , only Vahe’s products reached their destination broken, though their participation was ensured by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Early on, three individuals joined the business: Arman, Head of Arabkir Tax Department, advocate Mitich, who deals with claims initiated against Vahe, and Igor Sargsyan, according to some sources, previously worked as a Deputy Minister of Agriculture. According to his father, Vahe has been secluded from his partners lately, he was avoiding them. And then surprisingly, Vahe’s property disappeared as a result of court proceedings. What version can all this bring up, can only be presumed?   But it was curious to observe that Vahe’s partners did not even attend their friend’s funeral.

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor is interested in this case. Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the story, Artur Sakunts considers the inactivity of the preliminary investigation body at the very least, strange. He was surprised that the investigator had immediately come to the version of a suicide without taking into account the important evidence at the crime scene. They had not even taken the diseased boy’s telephone in the investigation to at least reveal the “suicide” circumstances. Sakunts feels the relevant officials from Arabkir Investigation Body should have been dismissed for official inactivity, but no criminal case has even been filed.

We will document how the events unfold and will present the news in upcoming articles. This much is all that is known at the moment.
 
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