Non-combat deaths bring Armenian army under spotlight

The recent non-combat deaths of four Armenian soldiers on the Azerbaijani front, bringing the Armenian death toll to 15 since July, are stoking fresh debate about transparency and discipline in the Armenian army, a report has said.

Four conscripts, aged between 19 and 20 years old, were reportedly killed south of the Nagorno-Karabakh front at around midnight on Nov. 19 in what has been described “a scrap among soldiers” Another four conscripts were wounded in the incident. The Ministry of Defense said it “is almost ruled out” that gunfire from Azerbaijan led to the bloodshed, reported EurasiaNet.org.

The man suspected of being responsible for the deaths, a conscript from the same unit as the victims, has been taken into custody, according to Ministry of Defense investigators.

The incident was preceded by the Nov. 19 killing of a 23-year-old sergeant stationed in the northern Armenian province of Gegharkunik. Two people were arrested on Nov. 21 on charges of premeditated murder in connection with that incident.

Of the 15 non-combat deaths registered in the Armenian military between July and November this year, two have been officially classified as suicides. After the first incident, a July shooting rampage that left five dead, public pressure began to mount on the Ministry of Defense to address the causes of the violence. On a Nov. 19 trip to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian President Sergei Sarkisian, who formerly served as defense minister, said: “We will do everything to be able to save what is the most precious for us – the lives of our soldiers and officers.”

The ministry has already dismissed a number of senior officials and pledged to put an end to the violence, but a number of human rights activists have argued the government needs to do more. Armenia Helsinki Committee Chairman Avetik Ishkhanian thinks the recent deaths might be an indication the army has become “uncontrollable.”

“After the latest cases, the authorities have finally begun to take some steps. But these steps do not produce results because they are either just pretending to do something, which I do not want to believe, or the situation is already too bad and has become uncontrollable,” Ishkhanian said.

Criticism of conditions faced by army conscripts intensified in September following the release of a video on the website YouTube that showed an officer beating and humiliating two soldiers. Online campaigns launched on social networking site Facebook against the army and its commanders are demanding the resignation of Defense Minister Seihran Ohanian over the incident. President Sarkisian claimed last month that those calling for Ohanian’s resignation “are trying to gain political dividends at the expense of the army.”

But the father of one of the victims of a shooting-incident insists that publicizing the violence within the army is the only way to stop the killings. “Many are now afraid, are in mourning and still do not realize that we must fight,” said Sargis Sarkisian, whose 19-year-old son, Andranik, was killed in Karabakh on July 28. “They have lost their children. What else do they have to lose?”


/Hurriyet Daily News/