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ARMENIAN STUDENT STABBED 18 TIMES
David Nowak, Staff Writer
The Moscow Times
October 24, 2007 Wednesday
The body of an Armenian music student stabbed 18 times has been found
on a street in southern Moscow, while two Vietnamese citizens have
been hospitalized after an attack, family and officials said Tuesday.
News of the attacks may fuel worries about an outbreak of xenophobic
violence, coming after the murder of two dark-skinned people and the
stabbing of two others.
Ovanes Ayrumyan, 23, died immediately in the attack on Balaklavsky
Prospekt in southern Moscow on Saturday, said his brother, Tigran
Ayrumyan, who attended his funeral Tuesday.
"We are all in shock," said Ayrumyan, 19, speaking from the family
home, where their father, Grigor, was too distraught to speak.
"You know, there are people of our nationality who behave badly and
provoke people," said a family friend, who gave only her first name,
Karina. "Ovanes was not one of them."
A talented musician, Ovanes Ayrumyan toured the world playing lead
violin with the Chamber Orchestra of the Svetlana Richter School of
Arts, said Alla Gudush, the orchestra's director.
"This was a happy person. He was a fantastic and unique guy.
Everybody should strive to be like him," Gudush said.
In another attack, two Vietnamese citizens, aged 28 and 30, were
admitted to the hospital with knife wounds Tuesday, Interfax
reported. No other details were available.
Ayrumyan died the same day that dozens of drunken football fans aged 13
to 16 attacked three dark-skinned people while celebrating a Spartak
Moscow victory on the street. They stabbed to death Sergei Nikolayev,
a 46-year-old chess player and native of Buryatia, at around 5 p.m. on
Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova, and injured natives of Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan on nearby streets.
It remains unclear whether Ayrumyan was attacked by the football
fans. Balaklavsky Prospekt, where he died, is roughly a 15-minute walk
from Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova. He had just left the Chertanovskaya
metro station at about 7:30 p.m. when he was attacked.
On Sunday night, a 37-year-old Uzbek was stabbed to death about two
kilometers away from Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova.
Police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev could not be reached Tuesday, while
the city's Investigative Committee, which is leading the probe into
Saturday's attacks, refused to comment.
Police have denied that the attacks were racially motivated, saying
Saturday's victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
No suspects have been detained in any of the killings.
No other details are known about the attack on Ayrumyan, but police
told the family that officers at the Chertanovskaya metro station
saw a young man, in bloody clothes, run into the metro and down the
escalators. He was not detained, Karina said.
Meanwhile, the Moscow City Court on Tuesday convicted three young men
in a racially motivated killing. The three were accused of beating
and stabbing an ethnic Kyrgyz man to death in in October 2006. The
convicts were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 14 years.
David Nowak, Staff Writer
The Moscow Times
October 24, 2007 Wednesday
The body of an Armenian music student stabbed 18 times has been found
on a street in southern Moscow, while two Vietnamese citizens have
been hospitalized after an attack, family and officials said Tuesday.
News of the attacks may fuel worries about an outbreak of xenophobic
violence, coming after the murder of two dark-skinned people and the
stabbing of two others.
Ovanes Ayrumyan, 23, died immediately in the attack on Balaklavsky
Prospekt in southern Moscow on Saturday, said his brother, Tigran
Ayrumyan, who attended his funeral Tuesday.
"We are all in shock," said Ayrumyan, 19, speaking from the family
home, where their father, Grigor, was too distraught to speak.
"You know, there are people of our nationality who behave badly and
provoke people," said a family friend, who gave only her first name,
Karina. "Ovanes was not one of them."
A talented musician, Ovanes Ayrumyan toured the world playing lead
violin with the Chamber Orchestra of the Svetlana Richter School of
Arts, said Alla Gudush, the orchestra's director.
"This was a happy person. He was a fantastic and unique guy.
Everybody should strive to be like him," Gudush said.
In another attack, two Vietnamese citizens, aged 28 and 30, were
admitted to the hospital with knife wounds Tuesday, Interfax
reported. No other details were available.
Ayrumyan died the same day that dozens of drunken football fans aged 13
to 16 attacked three dark-skinned people while celebrating a Spartak
Moscow victory on the street. They stabbed to death Sergei Nikolayev,
a 46-year-old chess player and native of Buryatia, at around 5 p.m. on
Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova, and injured natives of Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan on nearby streets.
It remains unclear whether Ayrumyan was attacked by the football
fans. Balaklavsky Prospekt, where he died, is roughly a 15-minute walk
from Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova. He had just left the Chertanovskaya
metro station at about 7:30 p.m. when he was attacked.
On Sunday night, a 37-year-old Uzbek was stabbed to death about two
kilometers away from Ulitsa Arkhitektora Vlasova.
Police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev could not be reached Tuesday, while
the city's Investigative Committee, which is leading the probe into
Saturday's attacks, refused to comment.
Police have denied that the attacks were racially motivated, saying
Saturday's victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
No suspects have been detained in any of the killings.
No other details are known about the attack on Ayrumyan, but police
told the family that officers at the Chertanovskaya metro station
saw a young man, in bloody clothes, run into the metro and down the
escalators. He was not detained, Karina said.
Meanwhile, the Moscow City Court on Tuesday convicted three young men
in a racially motivated killing. The three were accused of beating
and stabbing an ethnic Kyrgyz man to death in in October 2006. The
convicts were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 14 years.