Deputy head of police murdered

Murders and assassinations are nothing new or surprising here although it’s been some time since we’ve had one as high profile as tonight. In what sounds like a contract hit, the deputy head of police was shot three times in the head outside his apartment in the center of Yerevan. The Prosecutor-General as well as the heads of the police and National Security Service rushed to the scene. 

Few other details are known at present — even about 33-year-old Colonel Gevorg Mherian. Apart from the brief time he spent as presidential adviser on anti-corruption activities, his appointment as deputy head of police in July last year had largely gone unnoticed. However, Mherian had promised to reform the notoriously corrupt passport and visas office (OVIR).

Indeed, it is the lack of notoriety and gossip about Mherian that makes the news so shocking and surprising.