Dozens of Armenians die in country's army – statistics

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia yet is face to face with a serious problem which is the outflow of the country’s population abroad. A considerable part of these people are Armenian teenager boys, and the reason for their flee is the Armenian army. Their parents are well aware of the terrible situation in the country’s armed forces – therefore, they try to find any opportunity to keep their sons far from that horror.

The chaos in the Armenian army sometimes leads to the deaths of soldiers. As many as 45 death cases have taken place in the Armenian army within the nine months of this year, the Peace Dialogue organization has recently reported.

The report reads that 19 of the deaths occurred on the territory of Armenia, while 26 took place in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Four of these cases were murders, eight accounted for suicides, 20 were deaths due to the ceasefire violation, while five deaths were by accident, two due to negligence, health problems and violation of safety rules each. In two other cases, the cause of soldiers’ death has not been established yet.

It is clear from the statistics that most of the deaths in the Armenian army occurred in non-combat conditions. Lack of discipline, hazing, and health problems are the main reasons that kill Armenian soldiers in their armed forces, and this has been a well-known fact for many years.

Thus, the situation in the Armenian army units leaves much to be desired. Soldiers of some Armenian units do not receive even the minimum of the necessary provision. The soldiers are fed with poor-quality food, while unsanitary conditions prevail in military units; contagious diseases, especially the infectious ones are wide-spread there.

In addition to these terrible conditions, the Armenian army officers often abuse their soldiers, as well as steal and sell their clothes and food. There are also many deaths of Armenian soldiers in ‘mysterious’ circumstances.

Moreover, military experts stress that conscription of young people with health problems continues to be alarming.

For instance, an Armenian soldier Razmik Petrosyan had many problems, such as the third degree flat feet, swelling of the back of his heels, and problems with wearing standard shoes. On the first days of service, Petrossian got open wounds from military boots. Then he was given special shoes, but the soldier again suffered open wounds. Thus, instead of discharging the soldier from the service, the Armenian militaries came up with illegal ways to keep the soldier in the army.

Another example is the story of soldier Tosun Amoyan who had serious problems with a hand and could not even hold a gun, but still was drafted into the Armenian army.

Due to all the above-mentioned reasons, the Armenians associate the service in their army with pain and suffering, while the desperate government tries to find new ways of attracting the country’s population to army through new programs, which, incidentally, are unsuccessful.