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Azernews 30 January 2017

By Rashid Shirinov

Mothers of Armenian soldiers, who died in non-combat conditions, gathered in front of the Presidential Office last week to remind about their dead sons, who were left forgotten by the Armenian authorities.

“Why do they remember all soldiers, but not our sons? For what this separation is done?!” said Irina Gazaryan, mother of soldier Arthur Ghazaryan, deceased in 2010.

The police urged mothers to leave the territory with a view no to affect the “work” of the Presidential Office. However, women, holding placards with portraits of their sons, kept demonstrating in front of the Presidential Office for two hours.

They criticized the attitude of Armenia’s former and current ministers of defense to the soldiers deceased or killed in non-combat conditions.

Gazaryan said that many incidents with “mysteries” circumstances took place during the tenure of former minister Seyran Ohanyan.

The protestors also criticized new Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan. The parents noted that a few months ago, they had filed an application to meet with him, but the request was rejected by the ministry.

Nana Muradyan, mother of soldier Valery Muradyan, who died in 2010 in non-combat conditions, does not believe the case of his son’s death will be properly examined.

“The decision to close the case has been cancelled for the second time. They deliberately play for time so that we fail to brought the case to the European Court of Human Rights,” she said.

Meanwhile, statistics of non-combat losses of the Armenian Armed Forces continues to grow steadily. Armenian media state that a total of 206 deaths were recorded in the Armenian army from 2010 to 2015. A large part of them, 48, were suicides, and 43 – murders.

As for 2016, a total of 162 deaths were registered in the Armenian Armed Forces, including 51 cases in non-combat conditions.

Chairman of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Artur Sakunts recently told Tert.am that both suicides and murders saw a fourfold increase in 2016 against the previous year’s record.

“No institutional changes were initiated to improve the situation with human rights in the armed forces,” he noted.