Crimes in Armenian army exasperate soldier parents
By Rashid Shirinov
Parents of Armenian servicemen are extremely concerned about the situation in the country’s army. As the already deplorable situation in the Armenian army is deteriorating day by day, the parents are no longer just displeased, but openly express their dissatisfaction by joining the protests against the country’s military leadership.
One of the main reasons that cause protests of soldiers’ parents is that the relations between servicemen conscripted from Armenia and Karabakh, which Armenia occupied from Azerbaijan, become more acute in the Armenian army. The disagreements that arise between these two groups often lead to crimes, including serious ones.
Armenian users of social networks note that parents do not want their children to serve in the front line and die due to the irrational policy of the Armenian leadership. Therefore many families opt to move abroad under any pretext so that their sons are far from the Armenian army.
No special effort is required to understand the dangers of serving in the Armenian army within the country itself and in the occupied Karabakh. More than 15 criminal offenses were registered in the military units only for the first 20 days of February, but the Armenian military authorities continue to keep silence. As a result of these incidents, at least nine servicemen were injured – some of them ended up in a hospital, while others became disabled.
Moreover, the report prepared by the Peace Dialogue organization, says that there were 56 cases of murders, 69 suicides, 90 deaths by accident, 39 due to health problems, 16 because of violation of safety rules in the Armenian army over 2010-2017, while 9 deaths occurred due to inaction of commanders and negligence. The Peace Dialogue employees have still not been able to establish the causes of deaths of 17 other soldiers.
Various human rights activists in Armenia note that hazing of conscripts has a strikingly violent form in the Armenian army. Soldiers who have undergone more than six-month service bully new conscripts, while those in their last six months are ‘senior’ soldiers, who enjoy various privileges, including immunity from such a treatment.
Moreover, these senior soldiers collect ‘taxes’ from other soldiers of a military unit with subsequent transfer of the collected money to the unit authorities. Those who do not want to comply with this rule get subject to bullying, violence and even get killed.
Thus, the permissiveness and crimes leading to non-combat losses in the army cannot but cause protests among Armenians. The protests are not yet large-scale, but their number is increasing. This can produce serious problems for the country’s political and military leadership.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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