Criminal charges have been brought against Armenian Sargis Krbashyan, who came to his Russian friend’s help during a scuffle in Sochi, President of Sochi’s “National Memory” organization Arthur Gevorgyan told Armenian News – NEWS.am. 

Hieromonch Lazar, the priest of the Church of Holy Royal Martyrs, beat a Russian citizen, whose Armenian friend, Sargis, came to his help,

According to Arthur Gevorgyan, the beaten Russian citizen and Sargis Krbashyan were called to the police station for inquiry Friday. “The priest submitted an application with the police, saying that Sargis allegedly beat him with a bat. Exactly after an hour, the police conducted a search in Sargis’ house, trying to find the bat, but they found nothing,” Gevorgyan said.

On September 16, Hieromonch Lazar, being in a state of intoxication, beat a Russian citizen with his three convivial companions in Sochi’s settlement of GosSortUchastok. Sargis came to his friend’s help after which the hieromonch broke out into abuse in address of Armenians, dishonoring the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, whose 100th anniversary is marked this year. According to Arthur Gevorgyan, the hieromonch began to offend Armenians, with such expressions as “You were slaughtered by Turks,” etc.  

The incident occurred in the presence of a large number of witnesses and was video recorded by a cell phone.