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Akbar Novruz

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Two Armenian soldiers have died in separate non-combat incidents just days apart, prompting renewed scrutiny of the country’s armed forces amid concerns over a broader pattern of deaths unrelated to combat.

Twenty-two-year-old soldier Edgar Gevorgyan was found dead on Sunday with a gunshot wound. Armenian authorities have detained a suspect in connection with his death, although no further details have been released.

A second soldier, a 37-year-old whose identity has not been disclosed, died on Monday. Authorities have yet to provide additional information about the circumstances of his death.

The latest incidents come amid growing concern over non-combat deaths in the Armenian army. Just a week earlier, one soldier was killed and six others injured after a lorry struck them on a road in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province.

Earlier in August, authorities arrested a person suspected of inciting a fellow soldier to commit suicide. The incident contributed to renewed calls for changes within the military, following a series of non-combat deaths this year.

In response, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan appointed Aram Hovhannisyan as head of the Military Police and dismissed Seryozha Stepanyan as head of the army’s Department of Morale and Psychological Support. He also established an interagency working group tasked with developing systemic measures to address suicides and what Armenian authorities describe as “non-statutory relations” within the armed forces. The group has three months to submit proposals aimed at preventing such deaths.

Pashinyan addressed the issue on Monday while presenting the government’s new programme to parliament.

“Our efforts to eliminate these problems will not stop, and we are already outlining concrete programs on how we should solve this problem, while also understanding that it is in some way connected to changes in the external environment,” he said.

Defence Minister Suren Papikyan also commented on the recent deaths, arguing that statistics alone do not provide an adequate way to assess the situation. He said historical military data showed that suicides and similar incidents had occurred consistently over the years, attributing some cases to criminal activity and other problems within the army.

Papikyan claimed that the Defence Ministry’s efforts had reduced the number of deaths to two in 2025. However, figures from Armenia’s Military Prosecutor’s Office indicate that 30 soldiers died in non-combat circumstances in 2025.

The apparent discrepancy was previously addressed by Defence Ministry spokesperson Aram Torosyan, who said statistics sometimes combine deaths connected to military service with those considered unrelated to service, without clearly distinguishing between the two categories.

The conflicting figures have added to criticism from civil society groups, which are calling on Armenia’s Defence Ministry to take greater responsibility for deaths occurring within the armed forces and address their underlying causes rather than relying on statistical classifications to distinguish between service-related and unrelated incidents.