Vahe H Apelian
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| Virginia Apelian, Armenian women protesting against domestic violence. |
On January 16, 2025, Armenpress reported that the Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan has said that crime rate has dropped in Armenia. On the same day Azatutyuan.am reported that the “Minister Arpine Sargsian downplayed a 16% increase in armed robberies shootouts and other firearm-related crimes registered by the Armenian police.”
Has crime rate dropped or increased in Armenia? Instead of dwelling on numbers and percentages, let us read what Lucy Deukmejian from Armenia wrote about such crimes. Surely there is much more than statistics to these violent crimes. A few days ago, I posted Lucy Deukmejian’s take on the senseless deaths in Armenia due to car accidents. See the link below.
In this blog I will present what Lucy Deukmejian reported about violent crime in the same article she posted in Keghart.com. See the first link below.
She wrote:
“The second type of senseless deaths is much more dangerous. Almost every day, arguments occur that end in stabbings or murder. This phenomenon is recorded not only between minors, people who have a quarrel or disagreement, or even among friends, but also among relatives. The victim or the murdered sometimes is an elderly mother/father, mother-in-law or a relative be it a family member. It is a sad and shameful phenomenon that is not appropriate for any community, let alone the Armenian people who consider themselves civilized.
Other nations and peoples are not free from such criminal behavior, but for a people with a thousand-year civilization, who lead in culture and in art, believe in God’s judgment and have faith, violence and bloodshed have no place and should not be the way out of a disagreement or a retribution by any “possible” means, even resorting to “kitchen pan”. How disturbing it is to often read about such incidents in the news as rescue workers discover human bodies in various places.
This alarming phenomenon has become an everyday occurrence, and is also reflected in the scripts of local TV series. Violence is presented as a normal phenomenon, which serves as a wrong example for viewers, especially the new generation. Do we really want to have a generation growing up, imitating their parents who start by shouting “I’ll break your head”, during a disagreement and end with “I’ll beat you to death,” and perhaps a few moments later actually beat and kill?
We must definitely work to reform this fundamentally wrong “upbringing.” We, as Armenians, are not guided by the “law of the jungle,” while we as a nation have the ambition to “get closer” to the European value system, where, despite the presence of many features that are alien or incompatible to us, there are elementary laws and rights that respect human values.”
In stating crime toward “elderly mother/father, mother-in-law or a relative be it a family member”, Lucy Deukmejian was alluding to domestic violence. On the same day, January 16, 2025, during the government session, the PM Pashinyan noted that the government may interfere in domestic violence cases. The social structure in Armenia is patriarchal and conservative. The family is sacrosanct and any hint from the government interfering in domestic issues is considered interfering in the sanctity of the family.
I dedicated this second part of the “senseless deaths in Armenia” to Mrs. Virginia Apelian. She passed away a few months ago. Virginia took a trip to Armenia from April 28 to May 9, 2017, to address domestic violence. In Armenia she was hosted by Maro Matossian who runs a shelter for abused women in Armenia. Virginia reported grim statistics about domestic violence in Armenia. She also noted that Diaspora organization have shied from addressing domestic violence concerned that they will be perceived intruding in the family. Driven by such concerns she founded the Armenian American Alliance Against Domestic Abuse. See the link below.
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Lucy Deukmejian, “We do not need senseless deaths – Մեզի անիմաստ մահեր պէտք չեն»։
https://keghart.org/lucy-deukmejiandeukmejian-meaningless-deaths/
We do not need senseless deaths -1/2 -: In memory of MP Mher Sargsyan.
http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/01/senseless-deaths-in-armenia-in-memory.html
Virgina Apelian, Armenian-American Alliance Against Domestic Abuse.
http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2017/10/american-armenian-alliance-against.html
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