What Crimes Were Committed During the War and What Has Been Done

According to Article 128 of the National Assembly’s Regulations, the Prosecutor General of Armenia submits a report annually to the National Assembly regarding the activities of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Armenia for the previous year by April 1. This year, Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan presented it on March 30, adhering to the deadlines. Despite the set deadlines for submitting the report in the National Assembly Regulations, there is no established timeline for when it should be discussed.

It has been reported that the timelines for discussing this report in parliament are still unknown, and it is possible that it will not be included in the agenda of the upcoming session. However, it is highly likely that it will be discussed before the extraordinary elections. For example, the annual report for 2019 was discussed on June 1 of the previous year.

The Prosecutor's Office's 2020 report is particularly marked by references to the Artsakh war and what occurred within the military prosecutor's jurisdiction. During 2020, there were 5,601 recorded incidents in the Armed Forces of Armenia and other troops, compared to 3,495 in the previous year, reflecting an increase of 2,106 cases, or 60.2 percent.

According to information from the newspaper “Zhoghovurd,” the sharp increase in criminal cases is attributed to the aggressive war launched by Azerbaijan. Of the particularly serious crimes, 538 or 84.1 percent were related to the state of martial law. Thus, out of 640 particularly serious crimes, 9 were murders committed by the adversary, and 2 killings were carried out by fellow servicemen.

Interestingly, during the state of martial law, there were recorded incidents of a serviceman killing a civilian and one case of a reservist killing another reservist, as well as one case of a reservist killing an officer. In addition, there are two cases of attempted murder by a fellow serviceman, one attempted murder by a contract serviceman against a civilian, and five instances of violence against a commander during the martial law.

Other notable incidents include 18 cases of abuse of power, disobedience, and inaction by a commander during the state of martial law, as well as 374 cases of deliberately leaving a military unit or place of service, 3 instances of violent actions against a subordinate during the martial law, 2 cases of disobeying orders, 103 instances of desertion, 2 cases of mutilation during martial law, one case of abandoning combat materials to the adversary, and 10 instances related to the aggressive war.

It is no secret that criminal cases are being investigated after the war, and one must hope that answers to all questions will be provided.