Epress.am News from Armenia
Two years ago, when it was time for Hovhannes Vardanyan to be called to mandatory military service, Chief of Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Yuri Khachaturov, reviewing the documents Hovhannes presented to him, advised releasing the young man from duty, Hovhannes’ father, Vardan Vardanyan, told Epress.am.
Recall, Hovhannes was admitted into a psychiatric clinic in Yerevan’s Nork district last month after serving over a year of his two-year military service in Askeran, Nagorno-Karabakh. The now 19-year-old conscript claims that officers tried to beat and rape him. A criminal case was recently launched.
“Hovik was the only caregiver [breadwinner] in our household, and Khachaturov said go, keep your younger sister and mother — we won’t send you. Then about six months later, I get a call from the commissariat [saying] we have to take him; well, shouldn’t such a healthy, tall boy serve his homeland? I told the, you are holding Khachaturov’s order in contempt; they tell me, forgive us, but we’re going to take him,” said Vardan Vardanyan.
Hovhannes’ father also stated that when he and his wife went to visit Hovhannes in the psychiatric clinic yesterday, they heard rumors that the staff were being pressured.
“The nurses were saying that they had all been pressured, on why had they allowed for [the public, the media] to come and film there. I don’t know who those people who are applying pressure are, but they are [just taking meaningless action],” he said.
According to him, Armenia’s military police told him yesterday that Hovhannes’ mental illness might have been passed down from his mother.
“I tell them, ok, but he served for 1 year and 2 months; well why wasn’t he crazy? He became crazy just now? Or fine, that he’s ill, but what about the bruises, the traces on his body — how did those come about?” asked Hovhannes’ father.