Mother of Killed Soldier Says Suicide Note Not Her Son’s, Told Not to Bother to Complain

Lena Sarukhanyan, mother of 22-year-old Torgom Sarukhanyan who died in one of the military units in Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh, as a result of gunshot wounds on Feb. 12, 2011, does not agree with the investigation into her son’s case.

Torgom was drafted into the army from Gyumri and was to have completed his mandatory service this summer. According to the official cause of death, Torgom was provoked into committing suicide.

Speaking to Epress.am, Lena Sarukhanyan said on Oct. 14 she met with Martiros Avagyan, the investigator looking into the case, who began to speak harshly to her once he found out that Sarukhanyan expressed her discontent with the investigation and wanted to submit a written complaint in this regard.

“I told the investigator my son was a very patient and well-bred boy and things couldn’t have reached that point for him to kill himself. In conversation with me, he said that there are many who envy him. The investigator responds, ‘Yeah, what should we do? We have many who are envious; what were they supposed to do; [of course] they would be jealous, your son had a luxurious sleeping area’. I got angry and responded that he achieved that with his grace and work, but that he spent sleepless nights on drawing maps — that’s nothing. I also told the investigator that I’m going to complain, but he responded that I’ll be wasting a piece of paper and it won’t lead to anything. I said, well in that case I’ll write [and ask them] to replace the investigator. I’ll write so much until it leads to something,” she said.

Torgom’s mother described how on Feb. 3 her son, as a good soldier, was to have received a second vacation leave, but that didn’t happen — this too causes Lena to believe that her son was killed.

Lena Sarukhanyan asserted that her son wore a watch and silver ring, which have since disappeared. Furthermore, Lena continued, a man by the name of Vahe, who served in the same military base as Torgom, in his initial testimony said he hadn’t seen Torgom in the last two days before his death. However, one day before, Lena was speaking with her son by telephone when he entered the room to get a cigarette and to tell Vahe that he can’t help him in the work at headquarters because he has another order to fulfill.

Later, Vahe changed his testimony and said he had seen Torgom. Lena added that two days before his death, Torgom’s phone card was stolen.

Furthermore, the soldier’s mother said that her son allegedly left a note asking that his corpse not undergo an autopsy, but, according to Lena, that note is not her son’s.

“What right did [Armenian defense minister] Seyran Ohanyan have to declare from the onset that Torgom had killed himself? They hadn’t even written my son’s correct age on that  [defense ministry] paper. So there was his pressure too on this act,” she said, adding that she is demanding the commanders on the base be investigated and the guilty, those who killed her son, be punished.

Lena Sarukhanyan believes that her son was ordered to carry out certain tasks which are not part of a soldier’s duties, which were to have been kept secret, and so that they remain a secret, her son was killed after the work was done.