The State Revenue Committee Takes Away a Slice of Bread from the Family of a Fallen Soldier: Father Prepares for Hunger Strike

The State Revenue Committee takes away a slice of bread from the family of a fallen soldier. The father is preparing for a hunger strike. This was reported by Yerkir.am.

The site states: "This is a country where a person considers themselves lucky because an ambulance that reached Shushi couldn’t take the injured, encountered several bodies on the road, picked one up, and it turned out to be their child. And in this country, the State Revenue Committee demands from this child's father the pension accumulation of that child, a few dozen thousand drams sitting in a depository account, which this boy had earned and saved while working before he volunteered to go to war and was killed.

This boy also owned a not-so-expensive BMW car—his father’s only remaining memory of him; the State Revenue Committee is taking this as well because the father has an unpaid debt of approximately 200,000 drams to both VTB Bank Armenia and Unibank for about 6-7 years.

The story is about 23-year-old Vanik Matevosyan, who was killed in Shushi on November 6, by enemy sniper fire. His father spoke about his petite son, who voluntarily went to war on October 1; first in Khojaly, then two days later in Askeran, participating in military operations in Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, and other areas for 34 days. On the night of November 5-6, he was transferred to Shushi as military strength was needed, and on the 6th during the day, he was killed. Vanik Matevosyan had destroyed many Turkish positions with grenades, but now his father is confronted with a whole state apparatus that wants to take not only his earned income but, as he puts it, his son's sweat.

"It's not about the money here; it's about the fact that my child went and died—not just for my wife and me but for everyone. Now they have placed a lien on my child's sweat. If it were mine, if it were personal, if someone had gifted it to me, then they could have placed a lien on it; but if it’s my child's, I am his rightful heir, and they have no right to place a lien on it," Arsen Grigoryan, Vanik's father, told Yerkir.am.

This is a country where 60 percent of the population is poor and extremely poor; and this boy, who barely returned from the army and started working so his parent wouldn’t go hungry, left everything and went to defend Shushi, which had been treacherously surrendered. And now, the pension accumulation and car of this fallen soldier are under the scrutiny of two banks and the Enforcement Service; they found no other solution and haven’t even tried to find one. They've taken the "letter of the law" and want to take even this from a family that is extremely poor—replacing the sacrifice of the fallen boy with demands for money, which, if he hadn't gone to war but stayed and worked, would certainly have been used to pay off the father’s debt.

"My son consciously went as a volunteer; they should have paid more attention to volunteers, but today I do not see that attention. It is so hard when you hope that you have a child who will bring you a glass of water when you fall. He was my whole meaning in life, like planting a seed in a pot and watering it until it sprouts—a cocoon turned into a flower that you should smell; they have broken my flower," said the father of Vanik Matevosyan.

After his death, with the money transferred to the family from a foundation, the father created a memory park and placed a cross in honor of his son, choosing to manage the funds in this way. He says that not even a representative from the Ministry of Defense, the Mayor’s office, or the municipal government came for the opening—except for one person, Seyran Ohanyan, who came by invitation, along with the local church priest.

The fallen soldier's father lives in a makeshift house located in the South-West A2 neighborhood, behind the 5th building of Oganov. The park is right in front of his home.

"Let them come and see my living conditions. My child had half-built a shack before he went to war. We worked hard to prepare for his marriage and household. He left that half-finished job behind and went and died, and that’s how my home remains. We had lined stones beside the shack, and he removed that shack’s logs; we built the sanctuary without windows, without a door, without anything, just setting up the walls. And I’m left hanging, with no attention or respect toward my son...,” said Arsen Grigoryan.

Vanik had come home from the army, started working, and his pension accumulation has been put on an account. His only heir is his father—neither mother, sister, brother, wife, nor child; only his father. The money is in his father's name, but when he went to collect it, he was told that the State Revenue Committee had placed a lien on his son's funds.

"I am my child's only heir; there’s a car in his name that needs to be renamed—the deadline has expired, and fines and penalties will be applied. The police will rename it, but I don’t do it because the Enforcement Service is also placing a lien on that car, taking my child’s car from me. Every day there’s a fine and penalty on that car, and tomorrow, whose door do I go to—for the fine to be removed? I drive that car; they stop me—no documents, I can’t even get insurance, I can’t get a tech inspection done. The Enforcement Agency says we are acting within the law. I have not seen any respect from any source, nor have they opened their door to me, telling me that I have raised this child for 22 years," Vanik Matevosyan's father said.

A father who lost his son is starting a hunger strike; he sees no other option. He is collecting the papers from the State Revenue Committee and the banks to bring them to the government’s door—perhaps shame will awaken, perhaps they will understand the value of his fallen son’s blood and the sacrifice made for the homeland.