YEREVAN (A.W.)—The trial of Yanis Sarkisov, the man who allegedly beat to death his wife, Zaruhi Petrosyan, with the aid of his mother, continued on Aug. 2 at the Masis Court.
According to sources, two of the witnesses were professors at the college Zaruhi attended. The third witness was a neighbor.
The first witness, Anahid Hagopyan, is a college professor who gave a positive depiction of Zaruhi’s character. According to her, despite the fact that she was married and had an infant daughter, Zaruhi was a hard-working student, reported armversion.com.
The second witness was Zaruhi and Yanis’ college advisor, Armenuhi Ghougassyan, who was well aware of Zaruhi’s marital problems and the dynamics of her household. When Zaruhi had expressed her wish to divorce her husband, the advisor counseled against it. “That happens in every household. Everything will fall into place. You were raised an orphan, don’t orphan your daughter,” she had told Zaruhi.
Zaruhi was herself an orphan, a fact her husband used against her when subjecting her to beatings. According to Zaruhi’s sister, Hasmig, the husband would brag about his cousin who held a high-ranking position with the Etchmiadzin police. Since his wife was an orphan girl, he’d say, he could do anything he wanted with her—even kill her, if he wished.
The advisor also said she had not noticed any bruises on Zaruhi, and generally characterized her as an honest person.
Finally, Zaruhi’s neighbor, Pourasdan Vartanyan, was called to testify. She said she was not close with the Sarkisovs, but she would always greet Zaruhi. She said the husband had demonstrated thuggish behavior since an early age, and went on to give accounts of his misdeeds towards her. She painted a positive picture of Zaruhi. She said she had not heard any noise indicating a fight fro the Sarkisov house until six months preceding Zaruhi’s death. She later learned of Zaruhi’s plight.
A fourth witness was also summoned, but it was revealed that the witness did not know Zaruhi.
Zaruhi Petrosyan died on Oct. 1. Her husband, Yanis Sarkisov, was subsequently arrested and now faces murder charges. According to Zaruhi’s sister, by the time she died, Zaruhi had been subjected to days of beatings. She suffered broken knees and a crushed skull. Her sister believes her fingers were broken when she tried to dial for help. A police investigator claimed that he spoke with Zaruhi at the hospital before she died, and she told him her injuries were the result of a fall. Neighbors alleged that Sarkisov threw Zaruhi’s body down a flight of stairs so that he could attribute her injuries to a fall.
The next court date is set for Sept. 9 at 12 p.m.
About a week earlier, on July 27, Yanis Sarkisov acknowledged he had fathered Zaruhi’s daughter, Lilia Petrosyan. The child’s name was then changed to Lilia Sarkisova, reported the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women.
As Lilia’s sole living parent, Sarkisov has extended custody of the child to his mother, also named Lilia Sarkisova. Subsequently, Sarkisova presented the necessary paperwork to the Nork Marash authorities and gained temporary custody of little Lilia.
Some activists have protested against Sarkisova gaining custody over Zaruhi’s daughter. They have written letters to authorities and even appealed with the Child Protection Agency.
Zaruhi Petrosyan’s death highlighted the problem of domestic violence in Armenia. It gave rise to calls for justice in the case and the adoption of domestic violence laws by authorities.
this is very strange: why would anyone have to testify that the victim is a good person ?
because the implication is that she may have provoked her attacker therefore she is partly responsible for her own murder ?
the whole judicial process is bizarre: in US the character of the victim is not allowed to be used against him/her, except in very, very narrow circumstances.
there are practically unlimited number of cases in the US where gangbangers have been convicted of murdering other known gangbangers. The State doesn’t care if the victim was a criminal: you are not allowed to murder.
Exatlcy, why is there a need to talk about the character of the murdered? does this mean that if she was not a “good” person, she deserved to be killed?
Zaruhi, was beaten… Zaruhi was abused… Zaruhi was killed by her own husband and his mother.
Civilized peoples, nations, religions and more such hateful abuse is considered to be recognized. Zaurhi’s young life was ended by her own husband and his mother!! These uncivilized and inhumane and uneducated people . How/where have her husband and his mother learned to treat any humans in such a destructive and vile treatment… Or, was the mother-in-law treated as badly – learning to think that this was now her ‘duty’ to her son’s wife.. an orphan – had not any family of her own to turn to… Our Armenian women, are mothers of our children and grand children… and this is, too, for all daughters who, too, might become married into such ignorant families!!
Hence, I blame Zaruhi’s husband, his mother, the police who are still not equipped to be humane in such a situation (who probably sided with the husband) and too, our religious leadership who shall have know that such inhumanity exists in Haiastan. Together, all our Armenian society is to blame for death of Zaruhi… Zaruhi deserved to live… never to be killed – by anyone!!
In her memory, all women shall have to join together, groups, orgainizations, ending such treatments and, too, remembering Zaruhi… teaching young Armenian women their rights – as humans!!
She’s a pretty woman and should receive the justice due to her! No one should be allowed to abuse or kill someone else (especially their own wife). May she rest in peace!
Robert, you again: have you no shame ? we don’t need a Denialist Turk showing false sympathy for Armenians.
“No one should be allowed to abuse or kill someone else” – no kidding. Do you tell that to yourself when you go around denying the Armenian Genocide ?
Didn’t you challenge Armenians on another thread to debate the, quote, truth
of the AG ? Debate ?
Do you know how many pretty Armenian young women and girls your Turk ancestors murdered and mutilated – after the mob had gang raped them ?
Yanis Sarkisov!!!Is this an Armenian name??”
Avery,
I have this news for an interested Turk like Robert…I am sure he won’t shut up!!unfortunately Turks in Turkey do not have same luxury and democracy and freedom of speech, the way we Armenians have around the globe!!Robert’s luxury item in politics is “Ataturk” and denial of AG…
Old American Armenian brutally killed in Turkey
The prosecution calls witnesses to testify the character of the deceased sometimes; but in this case the innocense and the good character of Zaruhi has surfaced time and again.
Poor Zaruhi she was a hard working student too. A young and an educated mother who had so much to live for. For herself and for her young child. All taken away by a miserable beastly husband and mother-in-law. Sarkisov and his mother should be jailed for the rest of their miserable lives.
Horrible and so sad. Some people do not even love their own innocent children-by killing their mother. I wonder what the “father” will answer when one day the girl asks: “what happened to my mother?”
The advisors are there to HELP taking decisions and NOT taking decisions. She should have followed her own hunch/intuition to divorce him, as our intuition never puts us down.
I hope they are not going to blame her for the cause of her own death, and let the real murderers to walk away, this is unbelievable.
Avery, well said, this dummy shows himself, again, to be just that – a turkey. Abrees!
Robert, thanks for your empathy for pretty Zaruhi, but even the ‘ugly’ deserve society’s protection.
Zaruhi’s beauty nor character are relevant to this case. She was murdered and the murderers should pay for their crime.
Well said Avery jan… I share your thoughts exactly..
Boyajian jan– we miss you.. have not seen you around.. glad you are back..:)
Robert Robert Robert—– i feel very angered when i hear you pretend to be compassionate toward another human being..you know why??? i know you don’t care bu i am going to tell you anyway…i am angered because your entire nation and history is based on murder, rape and killing… and when you flat out deny what your ancestors did to our pretty ARmenian girls and women at the time of discussions and then come here and say something different.. it angers me…… you do know that right???? so you pretending you care about her, does not sit well with me.. it is like you are mocking us and her with your statement… you can’t be two faced…. but we already know one side of your face very well…
NOTE: if you are not the same Robert the Turk, the denialist, please forgive my comment… i just hate it when he is using a Westernized name to hide his true colors…
Gayane
it’s him gayane. the same Denialist Robert.
go to the thread http://armenianweekly.com/2011/08/02/reading-list/#comments
then go down to the comment by [‘Robert’ Aug 3, 2011.]
you can tell it’s the same person by the same unique logo/avatar.
‘Robert’ has changed it a few times, same as having changed his name a few times.
However, our highly sophisticated syntax analysis software, combined with a team of highly trained computer scientists and linguists, has been able to identify it as the same person with 99.1915% certainty, by analyzing the writing style that is unique to each person – and is very hard to change (…though not impossible).
Totally slipped my mind Avery jan that avatar remains the same.. although I remember him changing his name few times..lol that was funny because we caught him on few occasions…:) You are absolutely correct..
Gayane