In the last two months Armenian society has been shocked by another wave of violence in the Armed Forces. From late June to late August three non-combat deaths were registered.
On 29 June the body of a 20-year-old soldier, Tigran Ambartsyumyan, was found in a forest near one of the military bases of Kapan. The official version is suicide. A criminal case was initiated based on the incitement to suicide article of the Criminal Code. An investigation is under way. Relatives and close friends of Tigran do not believe in his suicide and say he had tense relations with the head of the headquarters. "There are still no arrested or guilty persons. If we don’t know how our son died, all our family will go mad. His body was terribly beaten. And after this the prosecutor and investigators want me to believe he committed suicide. Could he graze the skin off his face after death?!” Tigran’s father, Benik Ambartsyumyan, says.
On 19 August a 20-year-old soldier, Vardan Sevyan, died in one of military bases of Goris. According to preliminary data of the defence ministry, the soldier committed suicide by shooting. No people were arrested. Relatives of the deceased do not believe in his suicide. The marriage of his beloved girl is cited as a reason for committing suicide. “They cannot say he had problems during his service, as that would create a negative image of the army, that’s why they create this story about a girl. He had no girl. When we asked him about problems, he answered us that they had a son of a bitch in epaulettes,” Vardan’s sister, Armine, says.
The last drop in the wave of violence in the army was the murder of an 18-year-old soldier, Agassi Abraamyan, in the military base of Yegnikner, which has a bad reputation for its cruel treatment of soldiers. The base is situated in Nagorno-Karabakh. On 26 August an unconscious Abraamyan was hospitalized in Stepanokert, where he died an hour later. Agassi’s parents are sure he was fatally beaten. The military prosecutor of Armenia, Gevork Kostanyan, stated that Abraamyan was killed. An officer was arrested as part of the initiated criminal case. Kostanyan also said more arrests are possible in the near future.
“If there are crimes in the army, it means we have a low level of discipline. Because only a high level of discipline is the guarantee of absence of crimes, or at least their reduction,” the military prosecutor believes.
The minister of justice of Armenia, Grayar Tovmasyan, is also concerned about the situation: “There are two basic factors – security and justice. The army is a symbol of the first factor, security. Each death in the army weakens the state. It leads to the tendency of evading service.”
Public indignation found expression in a demonstration initiated by parents of young men who have died in the army in peace time, human right activists and representatives of the non-governmental organization “Army Without Murderers." They gathered on September 1st near the government building and demanded fair investigations of the soldiers’ murders.
Two years ago it was impossible to criticize the government in such a radical way and hold a demonstration. However, Armenian society, supported by the non-governmental media, has managed to raise the problem of violence in the army. Even the defense ministry admitted these problems. Some measures were taken to reduce them.
In general, the level of respect for human rights in the army is low. It couldn’t be high in a country where human rights are hardly respected at all. These problems came to the army from the society. Of course the army should be reformed, but increasing the number of soldiers in modernizing the Armed Forces can't solve social problems.
Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK.
