Epress.am News from Armenia
Yazidi soldier Tosun Smoyan, a resident of the village of Charchakis in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia, was transferred on Thursday from a Nagorno Karabakh military unit to the Central Military Hospital in Yerevan, “Sinjar” Yazidi National Union head Boris Murazi told Epress.am Friday.
Earlier this week, Murazi had addressed an open letter to Armenia's Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan alerting the official that the conscript continued to serve despite having serious health problems.
Murazi wrote on his Facebook page today that it's still unclear whether Smoyan would remain in the hospital since “his parents told me the hospital refuses to operate on him and that they intend to send him back to the unit.”
Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan, however, commented on Murazi's note, claiming that “there is and can be no talk of discharging [Smoyan] at this point.”
Tosun Smoyan, as stated in Boris Murazi's open letter, has problems with the nerves and blood vessels in his right hand which can only be resolved by surgical intervention. “The young man, however, received no treatment and was drafted into the army. Despite the fact that [Smoyan’s] condition continues to worsen, and he is physically unable to bear arms, the soldier is stationed in combat duty positions. So we're basically putting the soldier's life in danger because he'd be unable to defend himself in case of a possible sabotage attack,” Murazi wrote.