Chaos reigns in Armenian army
By Rashid Shirinov
The socio-economic situation is doleful in Armenia, but the life of Armenian soldiers is even worse than the life of ordinary citizens in the country.
Bullying, violence, including sexual, hazing and constant humiliation of human dignity – all these are common for the Armenian army. Armenian military officers often abuse their soldiers, as well as steal and sell their clothes and food.
The hazing of army conscripts takes a strikingly violent form in Armenian army. Dedovshchina reigning in the army is the violent hazing of new conscripts by conscripts who have undergone more than six months' service; those in their last six months are "senior" conscripts who enjoy various privileges and higher states, including immunity from such treatment.
Armenian senior soldiers collect taxes from the soldiers of a military unit with subsequent transfer of the collected money to the unit authorities. Those soldiers who do not want to comply with this rule become the subject of bullying and violence. Quite often, that ends with the murder of such soldiers.
For instance, there was an incident when a soldier refused to replace another soldier in a combat position, and therefore he was severely beaten by military officers. There are many other ways to punish a guilty soldier, but the Armenian officers chose the most violent and inadmissible one. As a result, the Armenian soldier decided to take revenge, grabbed a gun and fired at the abusers.
Armenians also remember another terrible story, about a cadet of a military institute in Yerevan. He was bullied, killed and then hanged by fellow cadets who did not like his refusal to obey them.
Most recently, a soldier, serving in the Armenia-occupied Agdere region of Azerbaijan, got tired of humiliation towards him and decided to punish the offender by pouring acid on his face at night.
Armenian people and media note that the military hospitals of the Armenian armed forces are overcrowded, and mainly with those soldiers who suffered from the fellow soldiers and military officers.
Moreover, there are dozens of stories of mysterious deaths in the Armenian army, most of which are being registered by Armenian investigation bodies as suicides in order to hide the real circumstances and real murderers.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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