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APA (5 January 2017)

An incident occurred in an Armenian military unit stationed in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Armenian soldier Haykaz Babayan was brutally beaten by detachment commander Mesrop Ashotyan and commander of security unit, warrant officer Masis Sargsyan as he refused to take the combat duty of another soldier, APA has learned.

Having suffered physical pressure, Babayan opened fire with a machine gun, wounding warrant officer Sargsyan in the leg and his fellow soldier, whose name has not been disclosed, in the stomach.

The wounded were taken to a military hospital in Khankendi. Warrant officer Masis Sargsyan is in stable condition, the other wounded is in intensive care unit.

According to information, the command of the military unit, where the incident occurred, in order to hide it and avoid responsibility, told the Defense Ministry leadership that it was only an incident. An investigation is underway into the incident.

The cases of violation of statutory regulations and the rules of combat duty have recently increased in Armenia. Two similar cases were reported in the Armenian army in November 2016, according to official information released by the Armenian side.

On November 13, 2016, an Armenian soldier was shot dead by junior sergeant Vardan Arakelyan as a result of gross violation of the rules of combat duty.

On November 22, another dispute erupted between two Armenian soldiers A. Nersesyan and Aznavur Balayan, who were both on combat duty, as a result of which the letter was wounded in the head. Balayan is still being treated in the intensive care unit of the Central Military Hospital in Yerevan.