Today marks one month since the killing of the family in Gyumri. One of the frequently asked questions following this slaughter was whether the suspect would be turned over to the Armenian justice or not. There were also other questions concerning the form of the killing, niceties and reasons.

The rest were basically warnings and recommendations to Armenians requesting not to politicize what happened and not to attempt to bring it to the agenda of Armenian-Russian relations. Unfortunately, the authors of those statements did not explain what would happen if the emerged questions were discussed in the context of those relations. The suspect was not a random citizen who had arrived in Armenia on tourism or business purposes. He was a soldier, who was performing his military service within the Armenian-Russian agreement.

The Russian military base stationed in Gyumri has been portrayed as Armenia’s security guarantee for many years. Let’s leave aside the important issue – the aftereffect of any such crime on Armenian people’s perceptions of security. Irrespective of whether they were much spoken about or remained in the shadow, the incidents in Gyumri with the involvement of the military base’s servicemen, including the January 12 case, left behind two unanswered questions – what conclusions were drawn and whether they were drawn or not? These questions imply other sub-questions – what measures has the command of the military base taken to change the servicemen’s conduct and to act in conformity with the disciplinary regulations, what steps has it taken to ensure security, how does the Armenian Defense Ministry approach the issues that have sprung up and how consistently are they voiced and discussed with the Russian party?

The list of these questions can be continued, and as you can see, they fit into the agenda of Armenian-Russian ties. If Armenia does not take consistent steps, Russia will guide itself by solely its own notions and priorities and will take steps or half-steps, which do not necessarily need to be visible for the public.

The 18-hour crisis the slaughter of the family instigated and the subsequent actions also showed that although the activities of the military base and the defense of the Armenian-Turkish border are regulated by inter-governmental agreements, in parallel with that they are interpreted in various ways.

What happened should make Russia sober up and Armenia should help in it. The Gyumri military base is not a place rising in a remote corner of the Caucasus and promising high salary for military service there. It bears significant strategic importance for Russia, but do the soldiers and officers taking up their duties have clear notion of the objectives of their mission? Are they acquainted with the past and present of Armenian-Russian ties as well as the issues and challenges the region faces, what knowledge is imparted to them before arriving and during their military service in Armenia? These are also questions related to Armenian-Russian ties and these questions should be voiced, solutions should be sought and employed in order to move forward.

The strategic importance of Armenian-Russian ties should be approached with responsibility instead of hiding behind them and adjusting each step to it.

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences.

The views are his own.