Expert: It would be wise of Russia to transfer Valery Permyakov case to Armenia

The relations between the 102nd military base and the residents of Gyumri should be revised following the developments in Gyumri, Head of Noravank Foundation Gagik Harutyunyan said at a press conference in Yerevan on Jan 16.  

According to him, the tragic events in Gyumri have already affected the Armenian-Russian relations at the public level. This is proved by the serious actions of protest in Armenia. "NATO is exerting big efforts to achieve mutual understanding between the servicemen of the base and the local residents", he said. 
Harutyunyan also thinks that it would be wise of Russia to transfer the suspect Valery Permyakov to the Armenian side. "However, it would be reasonable to conduct the investigation by joint efforts, because Russia is more experienced in such cases", he said. He thinks that Russia and Armenia equally need each other, so it is unreasonable to speak of deterioration of the relations and withdrawal of the military base. 

To note, following the murder of the family of six in Gyumri, tension has been escalating in Gyumri and throughout Armenia. The public demands transferring the case of the Russian serviceman Valery Permyakov to the Armenian law-enforcers. Armenian Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said that this runs counter to the Russian laws. 

This aggravated the situation even more. Under public pressure, Armenian Prosecutor General promised to apply to his Russian counterpart to transfer the case to the Armenian law-enforcement though earlier he stated that it was impossible to do because such cases are regulated by international legal standards. A total of 14 people were injured in clashes with law-enforcers, and nearly 60 were detained