Aghasi Arabachyan, the father of Gevorg Arabachyan, who went missing after the 44-Day War, was near the government building, surrounded by police troops in red and black berets, and State Security Service officers. He is looking for his son and has many questions, but no government body is ready to listen to the father who lost his son.
The armed officers of the security bodies surrounded him so that he would not suddenly approach the doors of the government building and try to reach the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to ask where his son is. Security and police officers quickly removed the father of a dead or missing soldier during one such attempt.
It happened on July 13, Thursday, when the regular session of the RA government was going on. At the moment when the father was voicing conflicting information about his son [provided by official bodies], Nikol Pashinyan was talking about the problems of public beaches and complaining that he opened a door in Sevan and the handle was left in his hand. Pashinyan expressed this idea almost parallel to Agassi Arabachyan’s words that he sent his son to the army and lost him.
Gevorg Arabachyan was in military service for nine months when the 44-Day War began. The father said that his son served in Kubatlu and last contacted him on October 4.
“On that day, the commander and four soldiers went down to bring the “Ural” [a track brand], which was hidden under trees. Jebra’il was already given away and they were ordered to retreat. They went to bring the “Ural”, a sabotage group was sitting there. The three soldiers and the commander ran away, my son approached the “Ural”, the enemy caught him. Now, in order to come out clean, they say that the “Ural” exploded, but my son boarded “Ural” and he was taken to Azerbaijan. The head of the rear told me that a drone blew up the “Ural”. I ask where the body is, he says: “The Ural” melted, what body can we talk about?” the father told Forrights.am.
Agassi Arabachyan said that he does not believe this version. He wrote letters to Nikol Pashinyan, after which, according to him, a different information about his son was presented to him.
“Then they said that they found a few percent of his son’s body: they found his jaw. We went to the morgue where they showed us complete corpses. Then they called again and said come and pick up your son’s body. We went to see and were told that is was a mistake, that it was an officer’s body, which they already have burried,” said the father.
Agassi Arabachyan is from Vazashen village of Tavush region. He claims that Pashinyan promised to receive him and answer all his questions, but now, according to the soldier’s father, he does not. He regularly comes to the government building and leaves without learning anything.
On October 12, 2020, the Artsakh Defense Army published the names of 45 victims, including the name of Gevorg. The father does not consider this version to be true: he claims that his son called him from the Republic of Iran in 2021. “In February, he called from a telephone number of the Iranian national security service of Iran: he was in touch until February. They did not let him speak; just showed him that the boy was there. He also has sent videos. He used to call at late hours- at 2, 3, 4 in the morning; he rarely called during the day.”
According to the father, after reporting this to RA departments, his son’s calls stopped.
Aghasi Arabachyan also mentioned that, in response to his complaints, it was reported that his son’s body was identified and buried by his relatives. However, he considers this information nonsense.
Journalists for Human Rights NGO will soon ask the RA Ministry of Defense, the RA Investigative Committee and the RA National Security Service for clarifications regarding the information provided by Agassi Arabachyan.
Narek Kirakosyan