{"id":282180,"date":"2017-09-13T18:48:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/epress.am?p=282180"},"modified":"2017-09-13T18:48:46","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:48:46","slug":"armenias-defense-ministry-refuses-to-continue-to-pay-for-former-soldiers-cancer-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2017\/09\/13\/armenias-defense-ministry-refuses-to-continue-to-pay-for-former-soldiers-cancer-treatment.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenia\u2019s Defense Ministry Refuses to Continue to Pay for Former Soldier\u2019s Cancer Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Armenian servicewoman Vardanush Kirakosyan was in 2014 diagnosed with breast cancer. The woman claims the disease was caused by the \u201cdangerous conditions\u201d in the air defence forces; nevertheless Armenia\u2019s defense ministry refuses to cover the costs for Kirakosyan\u2019s treatment, Hraparak.am reports.<\/p>\n<p>The woman, who served 22 years in the Armenian army, has futilely turned to numerous state agencies for financial support. The General Staff of the Armed Forces, in particular, said in a 2015 response to Kirakosyan: \u201cThe drug needed for your treatment, Herceptin, is extremely expensive and is not included in the armed forces\u2019 medical commission\u2019s list of expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the last month of his tenure, former defense minister Seyran Ohanyan met with the woman and subsequently transferred 5 million drams to her account for 8 bottles of the drug. Kirakosyan, however, needs 4 more bottles to complete the course. With the appointment of new defense minister Vigen Sargsyan, however, the agency again began denying Kirakosyan any help. As a result of delayed and improper treatment, the woman\u2019s health has begun deteriorating again. Defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan, meanwhile, insisted in response to Hraparak\u2019s inquiry that \u201cthere is no reason to believe that the disease was caused by the military service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSoldiers with cancer had better give up any hope when it comes to the defense ministry. They should forget about the 1000-dram fund and Vigen Sargsyan\u2019s promises. Who is this fund for when the ministry refuses to help living humans and to extend the life of at least 1 soldier a year?\u201d Hraparak argues.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the last month of his tenure, former defense minister Seyran Ohanyan met with the woman and subsequently transferred 5 million drams to her account for 8 bottles&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,65984,66056],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}