Alexander Pracht
Armenia has deported a Russian citizen of Chechen origin who was detained earlier this month for threatening to kill his daughter. Human rights defender Artur Sakunts told CivilNet on Monday that the man has also been barred from re-entering Armenia.
Sakunts said this was the result of cooperation between human rights activists and Armenian law enforcement. He added that security measures will be applied for some time to protect the young woman.
Last Tuesday, Armenia’s Interior Ministry reported that on February 7, police in Yerevan’s Shengavit district received a call from a foreign national who said her friend’s father had arrived from abroad, threatened to kill his daughter, and abducted her. This was later confirmed to police by the young woman herself. The man was arrested the same day.
“Taking into account a similar tragic incident in the past, when harassment was not reported to the police, swift actions helped the police to prevent tragic consequences,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The reference was to the killing of Aishat Baymuradova in October last year. The Chechen woman’s body was discovered in Yerevan several days after her death when the suspects had already left the country. According to media reports, they may have links to authoritarian Chechen governor Ramzan Kadyrov.
Such crimes are referred to in the North Caucasus as “honor killings.” The practice involves the killing of a woman by relatives for actions that are seen as bringing “shame” upon the family. The stated grounds often include refusing an arranged marriage, attempting to divorce a husband, engaging in premarital relationships, or any other behavior the family deems “improper.” In many cases, this extends to a young woman’s desire to live independently from her parents in a secular environment.
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