Armenian non-combat casualties in occupied Karabakh record low in 2019
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
The situation in Azerbaijan’s Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region was at a record low in 2019 in terms of casualties, in particular, non-combat losses, suicides, intentional homicides, theft, evasion of military service, as well as by the number of crimes committed on the basis of unregulated relations. These losses in the army were due to the arbitrariness of officers and abuse of office.
In 2019, a number of measures taken by the army command to prevent crimes in military units did not yield any results as the number of negative incidents were on the rise. The largest percentage of crimes were observed in relation to the violation of the charter, beatings, torture of soldiers and psychological pressure. Crimes of this nature especially often occur in the 5th, 6th, 7th mountain rifle regiments and in the 9th motorized rifle regiment of the occupying army.
During the reporting year, some 75 facts of unauthorized abandonment of a military unit and evasion of military service were recorded in the Armenian army. In addition, last year as many as 12 mass fights took place on the grounds of parochialism between Armenians living in the country and Karabakh, as a result of which dozens of military personnel were injured and prosecuted.
Seeing the growing scale of the ongoing negative incidents, the command of the combined arms army tried to solve the problem by dismissing commanders and other officials. However, this did not bring the desired result, as the army was involved in a number of losses resulting from unbearable working conditions, unfair treatment of soldiers, terrible food supplies and low level of medical services.
For 2019, the occupation army recorded 21 facts of violation of combat duty and internal army routines, 7 facts of drinking alcohol and taking drugs by officers and soldiers, 119 facts of intentional killings, killings by negligence and harm to health. The command also failed to prevent crimes such as coercion of acts of a sexual nature, sexual exploitation, violence, indecent behaviors towards local residents.
Some 29 cases of giving and receiving a bribe, abuse of power, 12 facts of incitement to suicide and attempted suicide occurred in military units of the 1st Combined Arms Army in 2019. As a result of more than 100 incidents related to careless handling of weapons, mines and a grenade, the occupying army suffered numerous losses. A large number of fires in military units and car accidents are another indicator of the irresponsibility and lack of professionalism of the Armenian military in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
In protest of the arbitrariness, unbearable conditions and disorder in the occupying army, the parents of the soldiers in Armenia repeatedly complained, refusing to send their children to military service in the occupied territories. According to some sources, the number of people under various pretexts of evading service is about 10,000.
Noted that in 2019, some 49 troops were killed and 32 facts of injuries were recorded in the Armenian army.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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