Artists Tackle Non-Combat Army Deaths through Work Posted on Facebook

Photographer German Avagyan and graphic designer Varpet Onik (Hovhannisyan) have uploaded a few photo-based art works on their respective Facebook pages following the second reported case of suicide in the Armenian army this past week.

As previously reported, according to an official statement by the Armenian defense ministry, on Oct. 12, in one of the military units in Nagorno-Karabakh in the north, Armenian conscript Yurik Nersisyan, 19, while on duty on the front line, shot and killed himself with his own gun.

While, on Oct. 9, another draftee, Vladimir Asatryan, 19, also while on guard duty reportedly shot and killed himself in another military unit also in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Headline photo by German Avagyan reads “suicide” in Armenian which literally translates to “self-murder”. Avagyan has separated the two components with an emphasis on the word “murder”.

The words “Self Defense Army” have been transposed with “Self-Murder [i.e. Suicide] Army”.
(Credit: German Avagyan)

Photo of Armenian defense minister Seyran Ohanyan. (Credit: German Avagyan)

“Whose child is next?”
(Credit: Varpet Onik)

“The region’s most efficient suicides army”
(Credit: Varpet Onik)