Epress.am News from Armenia
Arsen Mkhitaryan, a 20-year-old conscript of Armenia’s armed forces, was found dead last July with a single gunshot wound through his chin in a fighting position of a Tavush military unit; military authorities quickly ruled the death a suicide and initiated a criminal case under article 110.1 of Armenia’s Criminal Code (abatement to suicide). However, the soldier’s father, Artur Mkhitaryan, is convinced that his son has been killed, while investigative authorities “are trying to cover up the case” because “those guilty of Arsen’s murder have relations with high-ranking army officials.” In an interview with Epress.am, the soldier’s parents and their lawyer, Norayr Norikyan, speak of their distrust of the investigative authorities and the official version of the circumstances around the soldier’s death, as well as of the numerous unresponded appeal letters to various state institutions.
The parents last talked with Arsen the day before his death, on July 2, when the soldier phoned home to congratulate his sister’s birthday. According to his mother, Lusine Mkhitaryan, Arsen was in a really good mood and “did not sound like someone who intended to commit suicide.” “We were informed of his death in quite a bad way… [Authorities] did not even tell us at first whether he had been killed by an enemy bullet or what… They just brought [his body] to us unexpectedly and did not even tell us what had happened.”
The parents say they do not trust the version of events that was subsequently put forward by the body conducting the investigation. “My son was murdered,” the father insists, adding that he has “quite a bit of information about the incident” that he is currently unable to disclose as the case is still at a preliminary stage.
After the death of their son, the family left their home in the town of Armavir and moved to Yerevan. “That house has been ruined for us. We just locked the doors and left,” the father says.
The parents’ and their lawyer’s distrust of the investigative authorities first arose in the next couple of months and has yet to die down. “It’s been 7-8 months since Mkhitaryan’s death; the case is still at a preliminary stage and there has yet to be any tangible progress. There have been no revelations which would allow us to speak with any certainty of the circumstances of Mkhitaryan’s death,” Norikyan tells Epress.am.
Both the father and the lawyer are convinced that there are certain people who are guilty of the soldier’s death; however, they have yet to be detained or subjected to responsibility. On behalf of his clients, the lawyer has submitted several names to the investigative authorities, asking investigators to look into them as part of the investigation. The lawyer, however, was unable to reveal these names to Epress.am due to confidentiality reasons.
Nevertheless, Norikyan says there are serious reasons to believe that those guilty have “influential sponsors” among the military unit’s highest ranking officers who “have been doing everything in their power to keep the murder undiscovered.” One of these high-ranking officers, the lawyer adds, is a veteran of the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
“No one is doing or saying anything; the case is not moving forward. I’ve been fruitlessly making appeals and requests for 8 months; how can I be satisfied with their work? How is it that they have been unable so far to find out who he has been driven to this alleged suicide by? And what if he has in fact been murdered? Who by and why?” the father says, insisting that the investigative authorities have simply given up on revealing the case.
After a numerous appeals by the family’s lawyer, the case has finally been referred to the Armenian Investigative Committee’s military investigation department for particularly important crimes, without, however, producing any tangible results.
On January 20, 2017, Artur Mkhitaryan sent an appeal letter to Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, with a request to ensure a fair investigation into his son’s death. In the letter, the father also said that the conduct of the investigative authorities “has killed all hope for the discovery of my son’s murder.” The family have yet to receive a response to the letter.
The parents have also met and spoken with the former and current Armenian defense minister and “received nothing but mock sympathy from them.” According to the mother, current defense minister Vigen Sargsyan has told them he did not intend “to prosecute innocent people just to make you feel good.”
Artur Mkhitaryan says he does not know whether his son had had any issues in the army; “He wouldn’t tell us anything. But it turns out that he did in fact have problems. I just don’t think he imagined that people would be capable of such things.”
After Arsen’s death, the parents went to the military unit and spoke with his fellow servicemen. On the day of the incident, the father says, there were 8 other soldiers at the combat position who now say they have neither heard nor seen anything suspicious. “What criminal would openly say ‘I’m a criminal’? How come none of these 8 soldiers heard the gunshot sound? One would think Arsen was alone at the position…” the father says, alleging that the witnesses are being intimidated by authorities to remain silent.
Mkhitaryan is confident that his son was being harassed by several people in the unit. He says that a soldier at a nearby military unit has even told one of his relatives that other soldiers “were giving Arsen hell” during service.
The parents have so far not been presented with the conclusions of the medical forensic examination; they also don’t know whether Arsen was shot with his own service weapon. “Anyhow, I’m convinced Arsen was not killed with his own gun. I ask [authorities] where the bullet is, they say ‘there is no bullet,” the father says.
“I was always against him going to the army… We live in such a country… I am so sorry that we stayed in this country and gave them our son… [Authorities] immediately rule all the soldiers’ deaths a suicide. These boys live normal and balanced lives for 18 years, and then they go to the army…” the mother adds.
In the unresponded letter to the president, Artur Mkhitaryan expressed his surprise at military unit commander Samvel Minasyan being promoted immediately after his son’s death, and Aram Ghazaryan, the commander of the combat position where Arsen was found dead, being given the title of a sergeant. Mkhitaryan also raised this question at his meetings with the former and current defense minister, and received the the following response; “How is that relevant to your son’s death? Are these people automatically guilty of whatever happens to the soldiers? Why shouldn’t they be promoted?”
The father claims that after his constant complaints and appeals, authorities have begun indirectly pressuring him to keep silent. “They haven’t directly threatened me, but they always say ‘You have children, a family, go take care of them.’ These people act in different ways… They know their stuff; they are quite experienced. Army is the largest business in the whole world,” Mkhitaryan states, adding that he does not intend to back down until the real circumstances around his son’s death are disclosed.