Siradeghian was one of the leaders of a popular movement for Armenia’s unification with Nagorno-Karabakh who came to power in 1990. He became one of the newly independent country’s most powerful men when serving as interior minister in the administration of its first President Levon Ter-Petrosian from 1992-1996.
One year after Ter-Petrosian resigned in 1998, Siradeghian was charged with ordering a string of contract killings. He strongly denied ordering those killings, saying that the charges were fabricated as part of then President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to neutralize his political foes.
Siradeghian fled Armenia in 2000 ahead of the Armenian parliament’s decision to allow law-enforcement authorities to arrest him. Although the authorities had Siradeghian placed on Interpol’s wanted list, his whereabouts always remained unknown to the public.
The death of the 74-year-old Siradeghian was announced by his wife and son on October 16. They did not specify its cause or reveal his last place of residence.
The Armenian government decided afterwards to form a commission that will organize his funeral. The commission is headed by the chief of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s staff, Arayik Harutiunian, and comprises senior government officials, a deputy chief of the Armenian police as well as Siradeghian’s son Khachatur.
The latter told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his father’s body has still not been brought back to the country. He did not give any reasons for the apparent delay or possible dates for Siradeghian’s funeral.
Harutiunian declined to give any information when he spoke with journalists on Wednesday.
Siradeghian lived abroad under a new and false name, according to Khachatur Sukiasian, a wealthy businessman and pro-government parliamentarian who has long been close to the ex-minister.
This is why, Sukiasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last month, repatriating his body is now fraught with some “difficulties.” “There are technical and legal issues,” he said.
Throughout his exile Siradeghian continued to enjoy the strong backing of Ter-Petrosian and members of the ex-president’s entourage. Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party has urged the Armenian authorities to allow Siradeghian’s family to bury him at the National Pantheon in Yerevan.