Armenian police arrest surrendered soldier's father
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
The Armenian police has arrested Ararat Grigoryan, the father of the soldier who recently defected from the Armenian army and surrendered himself to Azerbaijan, local media reported.
Grigoryan was taken into police custody in the Martuni region for interrogation.
Defense Minister, Seyran Ohanyan said the reasons behind the conscript's surrender should be searched within his family.
Ohanyan earlier refused to make any comment on the soldier's capitulation, waiting for an official statement from the colleagues in Baku.
The Armenian media spread no information about the reasons of Grigoryan's arrest and his further fate.
The Armenian serviceman, whose identity has been revealed by the authorities as Andranik Grigoryan crossed over the Azerbaijani-Armenian border while waving a white flag on March 22.
Grigoryan explained his step as an effort to save his life, as said he could not contemplate another day in the Armenian armed forces since it meant dying a senseless death, defending a government which cares not for its people. Judging by his words, he was quite confident that his life would end in tragedy should he stay with Armenia armed forces.
Grigoryan revealed the realities facing the Armenian armed forces, including the shortage of weapons, poor morale, difficult living conditions, and low food supplies and so on.
"Civilians are entrenched as sentries due to the lack of soldiers," said Grigoryan, adding that he doesn't want to fall victim to Yerevan rulers' dirty games.
Grigoryan said the chaos and intolerable conditions prevail in the occupied Azerbaijani lands, namely in the absence of military discipline, shortages of weapons, ammunition, food and medicines, enmity between the local Karabakh population and Armenians from Armenia, and the mutual hatred between officers and soldiers.
Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory was turned into a battlefield and zone of aggravated tensions after Armenia sent its troops to occupy Azerbaijan's lands. As a result, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory stands under military occupation. For the past two decades, and despite calls from the international community, Armenia has refused to withdraw its troops and retreat within its national borders.
After he was shown mercy by Azerbaijan, Grigoryan slammed the Armenian authorities for demonizing Azerbaijan and painting its as a brutal and criminal country, when indeed it had shown more restraint and respect for human life than Yerevan ever did, even to its own people.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry confirmed that the surrendered conscript is in good health, adding that the conditions of his detention were in keeping with international law and human dignity.
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