Today is the third anniversary of the death of the hero of the Four-Day War, Captain Andranik Mkrtchyan․ On August 20, 2017, Mkrtchyan’s body was found in one of the military units in Meghri.
“We went to the cemetery and came back. All we have left from Andranik, is this road; the road to his grave,” says the captain’s mother, Narine Mkrtchyan.
She says that her son’s friends were at home today, talking, remembering how the boy took the Azeri post alone․
“He was alone, the Turks [Azeris] were many. [He killed] some with a weapon, some with a shovel, some with a grenade. Would such a boy kill himself? Ando was attacked, attacked and killed by several people. He would never shoot at himself,” the mother says.
Today, in the third year of the preliminary investigation, the secret of Mkrtchyan’s death has not been revealed. Investigators conducted the case under Article 110 of the Criminal Code, “Inciting suicide”, and closed the case on the grounds that the person who instigated the suicide was unknown.
The lawyer representing the victim’s interests Khanum Mkrtchyan demanded from the prosecutor’s office to cancel the decision to suspend the case, to resume the investigation, to carry out a chemical and biological forensic examinations of the clothes, but was rejected.
She is convinced that the investigator does not want to work on this case, that the captain was killed. “There can be no second version,” says the lawyer, presenting the circumstances that disprove the suicide. Let’s list them briefly.
- Andranik Mkrtchyan sent a message to his girlfriend via the social network Viber that he would write in half an hour, while he did not write because he had been killed.
- The incident took place on Sunday, he was repeatedly called from the military unit and asked to go there, while he was supposed to leave for the military unit on Monday.
- Brown traces (possibly blood) were found on Andranik’s clothes and his service apartment. The traces in the apartment were not sent for examination and were removed (this contradicts the investigative version, according to which Andranik died leaving the apartment to a military unit).
- In May, 2017, Andranik Mkrtchyan had an argument with traffic police officers, received life-threatening threats, was taken to a military police station along with his friend where they tried to humiliate him and shaved their heads.
- No blood was found in the ointment taken from the bullet found at the scene, no brain cells were found on the bullet. The bullet did not pass through Andranik Mkrtchyan’s head.
“It means that Andranik Mkrtchyan was killed, he was killed with another weapon and in another place,” Khanum Mkrtchyan concludes.