Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia’s defense minister, the chief of general staff and the supreme commander must resign, said head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA) Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts at a roundtable today at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Yerevan.
Sakunts indicated 44 cases of death that were recorded in the army in 2010. According to official figures, only 7 of these occurred as a result of violations of ceasefire.
Most of the cases, according to the human rights defender, are violations of statutory relations and unlawfulness carried out by commanders. “What’s most terrible is that no one responsible is uncovered in the death cases, or they attempt to arrange them as suicides.”
Sakunts agreed with the defense ministry in that the army is a mirror of society, “because what is happening in the country, I mean in the attitude toward citizens, in so-called free conditions, outside of the army, the same happens also in the army.” The more such discussions and publications in the press, the more likely the situation will change, he said.
Referring to the recent incident in Karabakh in which 4 Armenian soldiers were wounded and 4 dead, Sakunts called it absurd that one of the wounded has been charged. “And is there a figure on the responsibility of the officers or commanders?” he asked, adding, “why do we have to trust this data and not conduct an investigation?”
Another roundtable participant, head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Mikael Danielyan said that the Armenian army has two problems: criminalization and lawlessness. “Until now, no one’s speaking about the main topic: why are the citizens of Republic of Armenia serving in Nagorno-Karabakh?” According to him, the lawlessness (or unlawfulness) begins from here.
According to him, criminalization is built on lawlessness, which is very convenient for Armenia’s authorities. “It’s possible to work with a criminal army; it can be kept in the [palm of your] hand.”
The human rights activist also noted that if the illegality of RA citizens serving in Karabakh is not talked about, “we will not be able to solve any problems. If Seyran Ohanyan, Khachaturov, are relieved [of their duties], nothing will change inside the army. This does not change the army. The army initially should be lawful.”