Prior to the full investigation of the August 26 death of soldier Aghasi Abrahamyan in Yeghnikner military regiment yesterday morning another death case was registered in Askeran regiment of NKR. A soldier recruited from Echmiadzin military commission named Haik Vasili Mkrtchyan, 19, was murdered.
On September 7 in regard of the death of a recruited soldier Haik Mkrtchyan the RA Defense Ministry informed that the latter died due to the violation of the order of the use of armed weapon on part of another soldier Lendrush Samveli Nazlukhanyan. In relation of this fact a criminal case was launched based on the third part of Article 373 of the RA Criminal Code. Investigation is underway. This is actually one of the several death cases in Yeghnikner military base (which is notorious with its criminal reputation). Last year a video was uploaded on Youtube, where a half-naked officer of Yeghnikner base was humiliating soldiers by filling water in their ears, cursing them, punching, etc. This cruel incident created a lot of noise in the society. The officer of Yeghnikner base Sasun Galstyan had a rank of a Major and was the deputy of the commander of the unit of the base. He was charged with abuse of powers. Prior to that there were publications about the cruel incidents in the military base after Vazgen Sargsyan in Ararat. And the authors of cruelties were again the officers. It was noted that the commander of Armed Forces Yuri Khachaturov was well-aware of these incidents and his son was involved in those. The latter was the commander of the mentioned military base. Later with his reputation and power he was the second person in the 4th corps. Let us remember that the officers of this military base after Vazgen Sargsyan are applying the worst and most cruel methods to degrade the soldiers. One of the commanders with a nickname “Rozh” was pulling out the shoulder straps of a soldier and kicking him in the kidneys by ordering him to kiss his shoes. And he would kick the head of the soldier, who would disobey that order. On the face of the soldier we could see the traces of the heels of Rozh. He beat the soldier so bad that he wasn’t able to stand straight for a whole week. They would line the soldiers, order them to get on their knees and hit them in the nose so bad that they would bleed. After these publications via mass media the officers of the military police visited the mentioned military base in order to get the overall picture of the situation. During the investigation it was found out that besides the abovementioned cases the commander of that regiment nicknamed Rozh – Vardan Martirosyan and Khachaturov junior were also collecting money. They defined taxes for soldiers by making them pay 10,000-15,000 AMD. Later these bets grew to 300,000. They made the soldiers to take loans from ACBA bank in the amount of 300,000 up to 1,5 million AMD by lying to them that they’d pay those debts off. The soldiers faced serious issues by not being able to pay those debts off. According to media outlets during the years of study of Rozh and Khachaturov in the military academy after Vazgen Sargsyan they have formed a gang named “12 brothers.” It turns out that even the first graduates of the academy were infected with negative and criminal trends. Back in the 90s they were related to the notorious “12 brothers” gang. The members of this gang have numerously appeared in the center of attention of the Armenian police. The gang has had total and formal control in the territory of the military academy. Among the crimes were criminal negotiations, beating, violence, extortion. Afterwards having received an officer’s insignia they continued their criminal activities in various military bases of Armenia and NKR. The commander of Yeghnikner base Hamlet Sevoyan, well-known Rozh from Ararat base, Yuri Khachaturov’s son Grisha Khachaturov are only three of the 12-member gang. On June 24 during the session of the personnel of the Defense Ministry that took place in Kapan a very noteworthy incident took place. The head of the Armed Forces Yuri Khachaturov blamed the military prosecutor of Armenia Gevorg Kostanyan of demonstrating “inhumane” behavior to high-rank military officers of Armenia. They also tell that Khachaturov told Kostanyan, “In order to charge an officer you have to be an officer yourself.” Some of the officers present at the session applauded to Khachaturov’s statement. Afterwards Kostanyan opposed Khachaturov and the officers, who joined the applause, by enumerating the names of criminal officers working under Khachaturov’s auspices. It was no accident that the military prosecutor was asked whether chief officers will be sentenced because of the death case in Yeghnikner military base. Hours after this press conference the press service of the Defense Ministry informed that two more officers were arrested in relation to the death case of Abrahamyan. Two days ago a range of human rights organizations spread a statement, which criticized the incidents and events in the Armenian army and the cases of cruel deaths. “What is happening in the armed forces is a blatant violation of human rights. We believe that the Defense Ministry does not control the situation,” says the statement. The campaigners complained that the military authorities remain reluctant to release credible official data on army deaths. According to their estimates, 228 Armenian soldiers and officers have died since the beginning of 2007 and only 32 of them were killed by Azerbaijani troops. “A comparative analysis of fatal incidents shows that it is far more dangerous to serve in the conditions of peace than to be on frontline positions. That is against the principles of the armed forces and is dishonorable. The lack of revelation of the real culprits is also a serious problem. They are making attempts to reveal the crimes at any price through the application of illegal methods, but they are bringing totally different people to justice,” read the statement.