Have Soldiers Been Punished by Sending Them to Artsakh? Officers Dismissed, Ministry of Defense Says

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, Artur Hovhannisyan, made a post on his Facebook page.

Disciplinary violations and insubordination in the Armenian Armed Forces are unacceptable and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. In connection with the incident, which has not been accurately represented in the media, the higher command conducted a relevant service investigation and decided to punish both the ordinary servicemen and the command staff. Several officers have been dismissed.

We warn that any serviceman who commits acts against the discipline and combat readiness of the Armed Forces will be punished severely in the future as well. Such phenomena are unacceptable.

Postnote: The son of a parent who spoke out is a serviceman who constantly exercised his rights as a single-parent orphan and has manifested as a reckless soldier throughout his service.

We remind that today relatives of soldiers serving in Meghri will come to protest near the Government building. One of the mothers told Epress.am’s correspondent that she had not heard from her son for several days and found that he was in custody at the Military Police in Stepanakert.

Two days ago, the woman met her son and learned that several hundred soldiers from the battalion had mutinied against the behavior of one of the officers about a week ago, left the unit all together, and returned following the commander's recommendations. On the same day, around midnight, the battalion was lined up, 20 soldiers were selected, their uniforms were torn, and they were sent by bus to the Military Police in Kapan, from where some were sent to Stepanakert.

According to the parent, those who remained in Kapan are threatened with legal action, while the others will be distributed as punishment to frontline units. In the video, the woman details other abuses by the battalion’s officers.

Later, the soldier’s mother got in touch with the parents of other detained soldiers, whose children warned that they could be transferred at any moment to other places. Some of the parents are not from Yerevan and cannot come to protest at the Government building tomorrow due to financial reasons.