Yerkrapah Leader, Woman Shot Dead In Yerevan
By Astghik Bedevian
A senior member of the Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans was gunned
down along with an innocent passerby on a Yerevan street in broad daylight
on Thursday.
Witnesses told RFE/RL that Sedrak Zatikian, head of the Yerkrapah chapter in
the city's Malatia-Sebastia district, was riddled with bullets fired from an
expensive vehicle that chased his Mercedes SUV in Malatia-Sebastia early in
the afternoon. They said the assailants shot indiscriminately for several
minutes and escaped unscathed, leaving a trail of cartridge-cases that
stretched for more than 100 meters. Zatikian apparently died at the wheel
moments before crashing into a heavy truck.
One of the stray bullets hit and killed a pedestrian who was later
identified by police as Karine Sargsian. The 37-year-old mother of three
lived in a nearby apartment building.
Some local residents said they heard gunshots not only on Thursday
afternoon. "They've been shooting for the last three days," said one woman.
Police and prosecutors promptly cordoned off the area to conduct forensic
tests and did not immediately make any arrests. Law-enforcement officers at
the scene declined a comment. The Police Service said in a statement that it
has launched a criminal investigation into what appears to be a contract
killing.
The dead man was primarily known as a son of Vahan Zatikian, a prominent
member of Yerkrapah who ran the Malatia-Sebastia district from 1996 until
his sudden death in 1999. The late Zatikian also had extensive business
interests in the area that were inherited by his two sons.
Sedrak and his younger earned nationwide notoriety in 2003 after being
implicated in a massive gunfight with close relatives of Hakob Hakobian,
another prominent Yerkrapah figure and Malatia-Sebastia businessman. The
brothers hid from police for several months before making peace with
Hakobian's clan avoiding prosecution.
Yerkrapah leaders close to the Zatikian family refused to speculate about
possible causes of the deadly shooting. "The Yerkrapah Union will do
everything to help to identify those who committed the crime," its deputy
chairman, Miasnik Malkhasian, told RFE/RL.
Malatia-Sebastia is the de facto fiefdom of Samvel Aleksanian, a parliament
deputy and one of Armenia's richest men. Aleksanian was accused two years
ago of waging a bloody vendetta against the extended family of Ruben
Gevorgian, another Yerkrapah figure who held sway in Yerevan's Davitashen
district.
http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeni...BB14E3F9A3.ASP