A week after seeing her soldier son in high spirits, the mother heard about his death. 21-year-old Vahe Harutyunyan had been in the army for two months and seven days. He was serving in the Vardenis military unit. “I visited him on September 29. That day, he was very happy, his mood was very good. It was Sunday, my husband and I picked him up from the military unit, we went to a food facility. He was happy, he wanted a belt, we had bought it for him,” recalls his mother, Siran Khachatryan, in an interview with Forrights.am, talking about the last meeting with her son.
The Ministry of Defense announced the death of Vahe Harutyunyan on October 6, noting that the soldier’s body was found with a gunshot wound at around 10 a.m. The relatives were informed about Vahe’s death by the military commissariat employees.
“It was the birthday of my son, he has died, we went to the cemetery that day, then we returned to their house. We were sitting around the table, then the men came out at once. I immediately called Vahe, he was unreachable. I ran downstairs. I saw two people from the military commissariat have arrived. At first, they said he was wounded, but we saw that an ambulance had also arrived and one of our relatives said, ‘Don’t fool us’… They said my son was gone…'”
Three days after the incident, the Investigative Committee announced that Vahe Harutyunyan’s comrade had been arrested on charges of inciting him to commit suicide.
“My son was very sensible; he would never raise a hand against himself, and he avoided conflicts. He never had a conflict with anyone. You could come to Agarak, ask everyone. On the contrary: he himself reconciled everyone if there was a problem. I think his dignity was insulted, he was threatened, he was intimidated. He was a smart boy, balanced, I don’t believe he could do such a thing,” the mother told Forrights.am, giving details about who the detained soldier was.
“They arrested him, but they applied to the appeals court to release him; they hired influential lawyers. That soldier is Edgar Virabyan from Metsamor. We were told that Edgar Virabyan had been targeting him since the end of September,” says the mother, noting that she does not know what problems there were between her son and the detained soldier.
The incident occurred while Vahe was on duty. According to Siran Khachatryan, Edgar Virabyan, who is the senior, and two other servicemen reported that they did not hear a shot. The mother does not believe it and demands a fair trial. “I am afraid that the murderer will not be held accountable and that will make me suffer even more. I want Vahe’s case to be reported widely so that they cannot cover it up. I will fight,” she said. Vahe was from the city of Agarak in the Syunik region of Armenia. He was granted a deferment three times due to health problems, but his mother says that he was positive about the army and service. “They gave my son a deferment for three years due to malnutrition. He was tall and very thin, he was 1.90 cms tall, and weighed 54 kg. They did not take this into account, they took him to the army saying that he was fit for service. My son had trembling hands and tachycardia, heart rhythm disturbances at that time.
Vahe was studying at the National Polytechnic University of Armenia, in his fourth year. The parents last spoke by phone the day before the incident. They did not notice any discomfort in their son’s voice or talk, and he did not talk about possible problems. “I spoke on October 4, my husband on the 5th: there was no discomfort.”
While the authorities are announcing reforms in the army, the number of victims in non-combat situations is growing. Since the beginning of the year, 32 servicemen have died, and only 4 from enemy shots. 28 soldiers died in non-combat situations: suicides, murders, health problems. It is noteworthy that the Criminal Investigation Committee qualifies accidents as suicides a few hours after the incident. The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s Vanadzor office has studied the cases under investigation by the Investigative Committee: they note that only four cases out of 28 deaths this year involve an accused.
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".