Epress.am News from Armenia
It will take 10 to 15 days for Narek Avetisyan to recover from his eye surgery, Georgy Grigoryan, head of the Vascular Disease Department at the Ophthalmological Center named after S. Malayan, told Epress.am. Right now, the young man is doing better and his friends have begun to come visit him.
Recall, according to Yerevan-based Helsinki Association for Human Rights, Avetisyan’s right eye was knocked out on Dec. 14 from a blow by junior officer Armen Tovmasyan who threw his keys at him at the mess hall of the Yeghnikner military base in Nagorno Karabakh where the young man was stationed during his mandatory military service.
According to the human rights organization, when the 18-year-old conscript was taken to the hospital in Stepanakert, the junior officer visited him, persuading him to say that he (Tovmasyan) threw a pair of keys at Avetisyan but the latter was unable to catch them and they hit his eye instead. The reason for Tovmasyan throwing the keys in the first place reportedly was that the junior officer asked the young conscript to take the current (cleaning) shift at the cafeteria, which Avetisyan apparently refused, saying he just spent 2 weeks in the field and had walked 20 kilometers.
From the Stepanakert hospital, the young patient was moved to the Malayan eye center where he underwent surgery yesterday. Grigoryan said they were unable to save the young boy’s eye because “there was no longer an eye,” the blow was that strong. Doctors removed Avetisyan’s right eye, placing a temporary prosthetic instead so that in future, he might try to undergo plastic surgery and have a permanent prosthetic in place. It will move, but of course, the young man will never be able to see from that eye.
Note, the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense earlier informed local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) that a criminal case under charges of “abuse of authority” has been launched.
Photo courtesy of Helsinki Association of Human Rights.