Aren Aramyan, who was taken prisoner with bodily injuries on November 16, was arrested on November 26 after being transferred to the Armenian side. Aren’s brother Karen Aramyan alerts Forrights.am about this.
28-year-old junior sergeant Aren Aramyan serves in the “Dutsi” military unit in Vanadzor, is a contract soldier. According to his brother, on November 14-16, he took part in the battles of Syunik and was under siege in those days. Aren informed the family about this on November 16 at around 11 o’clock, after which the contact with him was lost.
“Three posts were blocked, Aren was in one of them. He said that he was under siege, they had been under siege from November 14 to 16. They were not able to deliver food, fuel or help to them. When I analyze the facts, I understand that these people were left to the whims of fate.
He was under siege, but he told us we had to keep our land. The commander of the Aren’s battalion asked the Syunik command staff several times to withdraw the troops from the area, to save the people, but no one paid any attention. My brother definitely fought, at the expense of his life. Aren was injured, and righ at this moment too he is injured in the knee, the knee was operated on in Azerbaijan,” the brother said in a conversation with Forrights.am.
In a conversation with us, Karen Aramyan presents remarkable details from the episode of his brother’s capture. “On November 16, his staff leaves him. We have the recording of the conversation. Aren talked on the phone with the commander of his battalion and headquarters. Aren said, I am left alone, I am fighting, but when they arrive I am going to blow up. There is this conversation where he says I am left alone.
Let me tell you how he was arrested են He was wounded in the knee, he was bleeding, he wanted to explode himself. He told the commander, ‘I am shooting myself: I am left alone, I cannot anymore, they are hitting me…’. The commander asks ‘Aramyan, do not do such a thing’. While he was bleeding, he was hit on the head with the tail of a weapon and taken away. On the first day they took him to a morgue with corpses. Aren says, ‘I opened my eyes and saw corpses, blood and me among them’. Then he was transferred to Baku. “In Baku, they tried to burn the cross embossed on his hand, tortured him and beat him,” said his brother.
Aren Aramyan was detained a few days after returning from Baku. “On the day of their return, they took him to Muratsan hospital and provided assistance. On the day of his discharge, the investigative [service representative] came and took him from the house to the detention center and there is already a trial, they are detained for a month. How was he taken into custody in an extremely serious condition; his leg will not be healed. He came to the motherland from the enemy state, and such an attitude? Did he have to be killed in order to be awarded a medal and told that he was a hero?” says Karen Aramyan.
Aren Aramyan is currently in Armavir penitentiary. According to Karen, the family is not allowed to visit Aren. “His leg is immobile and they do not treat ir at all.”
In a conversation with Forrights.am, Aramyan’s lawyer Ara Karapetyan conveyed the following from the accusation against the soldier:
“The rationale is that it will have an illegal effect on the witnesses in the case. Witnesses in the case can only be the members of his post, but eight of them are currently in captivity, unfortunately, and one returned on December 4. It turns out that Aren will have an impact on those in Baku. They leave the fighting type alone, they leave the position, and when they return from captivity, they say, ‘as I remember he gave the order to retreat’. We have a fact that Aramyan tells those who were leaving to come back: we have a recording.”
It should be reminded that four servicemen who returned from captivity on December 4 were arrested.
Narek Kirakosyan