The parents of about 10 soldier who were killed in the army and whose deaths were labeled as “suicides”, met with the acting prime minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today. The meeting was not the initiative of the authorities; yesterday, the fathers of the servicemen “cut” Pashinyan’s way and presented the incidents of deaths in the army. Nikol Pashinyan instructed his assistant to organize a meeting with the parents.

The meeting scheduled for 30 minutes lasted twice as much. The parents’ first demand was the removal of the false label of “suicide” from their sons and initiating fair trials on their murder cases. Nikol Pashinyan “solved the problem,” stating that, within the Investigative Committee, they will set up a monitoring commission on the issue, which will further investigate the criminal cases of the victims. Besides the investigative bodies, the commission will also include representatives of the Prime Minister and the lawyers of the deceased servicemen’s relatives.

“All the time, Pashinyan stated that he knew better what was doing on in the army, who is who there and what they are doing. He listened to us all and proposed the option of creating the commission. We said that first of all we need to remove these false labels from our boys and then find the murderers and conduct fair trials. There are a lot of people who conceal these cases, starting with the commanders, ending with Aghvan Hovsepyan, the Chief of Investigation; and he is one of the firsts to conceal the crimes,” said Armen Martirosyan, the father of the April war hero Captain Andranik Mkrtchyan in his interview with Forrights. Andranik was killed a year ago and, again, his death was labeled “suicide”.

In 2015, the father of Haykaz Barseghyan, who was murdered at the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute with particular cruelty, offered the Prime Minister to adopt a law, according to which all those commanders under whose jurisdictions the incidents take place, will be subjected to punishment and, also, those who killed a fellow Armenian soldier, will be label as “traitors”.

Armen Beglaryan, the uncle of the military serviceman Gevorg Haroyan, who was beaten, humiliated and then assassinated in “Martuni 2” military unit under the NKR Defense Army on October 1, and whose murder was again labeled as “suicide”, announced that, after the revolution, the same anarchy continues in military units as before.

“Right at this moment and right in Gevorg’s military unit they continue the practice of beating, mortifying and humiliating soldiers. Now too, the soldiers come down from their posts distressed and embarrassed. The reason is that, after the change of the regime, those responsible for these incidents continue to remain in their positions; everybody pretends to be working but everything remains the same or becomes even worse. We should not take one single case, disclose it, punish the guilty party and walk away; no, we have to find the problem itself and solve the problem,” said Armen Beglaryan.

Immediately after the meeting with the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the parents of the 10 killed soldiers marched to the Investigative Committee to meet with the Committee Chairman Hayk Grigoryan and discuss the version proposed by the Prime Minister.

Roza Vardanyan

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