‘Zhoghovurd’. The Events Were Not a Lesson for the Leadership of the Armed Forces of Armenia and Artsakh

‘Zhoghovurd’ newspaper writes: Yesterday, according to preliminary reports, a soldier who committed suicide in one of the units of the NKR Defense Army was 23-year-old Tigran Manvelian from the town of Tashir in the Lori province. He was drafted into the army in the autumn of 2019. Another soldier, Tigran Mkhoyan, was from the Malatia-Sebastia administrative district of Yerevan. He was drafted in the autumn of 2018 and is not the only one who has committed suicide in the same military unit.

According to information obtained by ‘Zhoghovurd’, this is the second case of suicide in the same military unit of the Artsakh Defense Army. On January 28, around 2:55 am, a 20-year-old soldier, Nver Avetisyan, committed suicide in the guard post of the same unit, according to preliminary reports. However, the soldier’s relatives insist that he was not the kind of person who would take his own life; there are obscure circumstances in the case. Fortunately, Nver Avetisyan's condition is currently stable, and he has six months left in his service, although he has testified that there is no meaning to living anymore.

As it appears, what happened to him was not a lesson for the leadership of the Armed Forces of Armenia and Artsakh. On February 12, two soldiers, Tigran Manvelian and Tigran Mkhoyan, reportedly committed suicide again. According to information obtained by the newspaper, both Mkhoyan and Manvelian had served in military units located in the same area as Nver Avetisyan, and both were from the same military unit.

This means that within about a week, one soldier from the same unit attempted suicide and was saved, while the other soldiers died. What does the Chief of the General Staff, Artak Davtyan, think about this? It seemed that we would at least receive an official explanation from the General Staff yesterday. However, their press office, neglecting its primary duty, was busy making political statements. In particular, Colonel Samvel Asatryan, head of the Information Department of the Public General Staff, stated through one media outlet that the information presented in a report aired on public television on February 11 regarding the armed forces did not correspond to reality. What right does the General Staff have to become embroiled in political processes, abandoning its main duty, which is to keep the situation in the armed forces under control, remains unclear.

For more details, see today’s edition of the newspaper.