Presidential Administration of Armenia Accused of Lying by Mothers of Diseased Soldiers (VIDEO)

The Administration of the RA President lied claiming the mothers of soldiers who died under non-combat conditions in the Armenian army have had a meeting with Artavazd Harutyunyan, military prosecutor of Armenia, on the instructions of the head of the country, mothers Irina Ghazaryan and Gohar Sargsyan said in an interview with Epress.am. 

Note, in a response to an inquiry by the RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), the presidential administration said the Armenian military prosecutor, as well as the presidential oversight service had received the parents. 

The parents of the diseased soldiers demanded a meeting with RA president Serzh Sargsyan on November 27, 2014; however, to date, the head of the country has not acknowledged the parents' appeal.

“[They lie about our reception], just as they distort my son's murder case with false statements. If we've met with the military prosecutor, let them show our signatures in the log. We sign, when we enter the  prosecutor's office, right? Nothing like that happened,” Irina Ghazaryan, mother of Artur Ghazaryan who died in the army in 2010, said. 

According to the mothers, they last met with RA Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan on March 6, 2014, and after the start of protest actions demanding a meeting with the president they have not been received by anyone. The parents continue to insist on a meeting with the head of the country; meanwhile, their demand has not been addressed in the administration's letter. 

On Thursday, May 21, the mothers met with Aida Asatryan, head of the department of Reception of Citizens, Appeals, Complaints and Proposals Office of the RA Oversight Service, demanding an explanation regarding the response to RFE/RL's Armenian service by Public Relations and Mass Media department head Mary Harutyunyan. 

Asatryan refused to explain the letter of the official; instead, she provided them with Harutyunyan's phone number, Epress.am was told by Gohar Sargsyan, mother of soldier Tigran Ohanjanyan who died in 2007. "They consider our conversation with Aida Asatryan a meeting, too. We asked for a meeting with Serzh Sargsyan,” the woman said.

According to Gohar Sargsyan, she has repeatedly tried to reach Mary Harutyunyan on the phone, but to no avail.