Reservist Officer Tsolak Khachaturyan Begins Indefinite Hunger Strike in Front of Government Building

Reservist officer Tsolak Khachaturyan has announced an indefinite hunger strike in front of the government building since 10 AM on September 7.

“I submitted a request to the government electronically, stating that I initiated a hunger strike starting at 10 AM today. I declared the hunger strike because the government assumes the right to issue obviously unconstitutional subordinate legislative acts. This refers to the decision 898N adopted on August 8, 2018, which was based on paragraph 16 of Article 61 of the law on the status of servicemen, which had been recognized as unconstitutional and invalid just one month prior,” said Khachaturyan.

“People have an obligation to compensate for my unpaid annual leave. They have partially complied only after a criminal case was initiated related to deliberately failing to execute the court’s decision. Instead of 14 million drams, the Ministry of Defense provided over 4 million drams. They cite a provision of the law that is clearly unconstitutional. At this pace, where are we heading?” added Khachaturyan.

He emphasized that police demanded that he not hang a sign announcing the hunger strike on the government building. “It is possible that I may be unjustly removed from here at any moment. When you tell someone to provide legitimate demands, they can bring a general notion of operational necessity. My demands are clear; I will qualify my actions as self-defense, as I have won in three instances and have been considered justified by the Constitutional Court and the Human Rights Defender,” stated the reservist officer.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee of Armenia informed NEWS.am that a criminal case had been initiated based on the report filed by reservist officer Tsolak Khachaturyan against Minister of Defense David Tonoyan and other officials. Previously, Khachaturyan mentioned that only David Tonoyan's name was included in his report. “It is specifically directed at David Tonoyan, and I do not exclude the guilt of other individuals, as it has been evident from the beginning that the recognized debtor is the Ministry of Defense, and the minister is David Tonoyan. There are factual circumstances indicating that David Tonoyan has been well aware of all this, has presented official responses to our inquiries, and considering the judicial act, it is clear that he bears responsibility for this. The involvement of other persons must be clarified through the investigation, as it cannot be ruled out that officials from the Ministry of Defense or employees from other agencies may have attempted to create obstacles,” Khachaturyan stated.

According to Khachaturyan, the court's decision came into legal force on January 22; however, only yesterday, five months later, the Ministry of Defense contacted him and asked for his account number. “Yesterday evening around 6 PM, they called me from the Ministry of Defense and said I should send them a request via their email, indicating the account number to which the amount specified by the court decision should be transferred. I sent that this morning and requested that I be informed about its receipt. A little earlier, they called me and said they received the request, but no deadline has been specified for when the money will be transferred, which is about 14 million drams,” he concluded.