Defense Ministry Trying to Cover Up Murder Case to Save Face of Military Official – Hraparak

Six days have passed since the murder of a trainee at the Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan, however the Ministry of Defense is still not releasing the information that one of the arrested suspects' father is the Deputy Chief of the Institute’s Armaments department, Colonel Zarmik Markosyan, writes journalist Syuzan Simonyan for Hraparak daily.

The journalist notes that Markosyan’s son, Gnel Tevosyan, is one of the four trainees arrested for the murder of trainee Haykaz Barseghyan.

“According to our source, the monstrous crime’s main culprit was Tevosyan who ruled others with his “authority” of being a colonel's son. The father and son, in fact, have different last names. The informant revealed that Gnel had changed his last name, in order to superficially change the connection between him and his colonel father. Yesterday, Ministry of Defense Spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan was only given one question – what is the name of Military Institute’s Deputy Head Markosyan? “I don’t know anyone by that name,” answered Hovhannisyan, which is, obviously, unlikely.

This simply means that the Ministry of Defense is attempting to cover up the incident, save the criminal from disgrace, defend his father’s “good reputation,” although colonel Zarmik Markosyan, as well as the Institute’s other Deputy head, Armen Mzikyan, have been relieved from their positions,” writes Syuzan Simonyan.

The article notes that the Ministry of Defense does not officially explain why people are being fired, which allows the public to assume, for example, that the deputies, as well as Lieutenant General Martin Karapetyan, Head of the Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan, were fired for this shameful incident last week. 

"It is Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan’s style to punish his subordinates, but to do it in such a way that no one knows why. Maybe this is the reason that torture against soldiers and cases of murders in the army have a tendency to repeat,” noted Simonyan.

While the Investigatory Committee is dealing with the murder case, details are spreading throughout the media that Haykaz’s classmates tried to subdue him, he defended himself, it led to a late night fight, which led to the young man being suffocated with a pillow. Haykaz's body showed signs of beating, there were cuts on his veins.