Ministry of Defense on Missing Soldier

Auroranews recently submitted written inquiries to Defense Minister Suren Papikyan on several important topics. One of the questions pertained to soldier Norik Mkrtchyan.

The soldier's relatives and lawyer informed us that for nearly 8 months neither his mother nor the command has any information about the soldier's whereabouts. We inquired with the minister about the current status of the search efforts for the soldier and how he left his place of service.

The response noted, “In connection with the fact that conscript Norik Armeni Mkrtchyan of military unit 75937 voluntarily left the combat position ‘Damrdak’ within the defense area of the same unit on May 18, 2021, and has not been located, operational-search measures have been undertaken by the Vardenis Police Department under the Ministry of Defense. Subsequently, materials were prepared, and based on the characteristics of parts 1 of Article 361 and part 1 of Article 376 of the RA Criminal Code, a criminal case number 92083221 was initiated in the 5th military investigative department of the RA Investigative Committee. Moreover, on July 6, 2021, a search was declared for him under part 5 of Article 361 of the RA Criminal Code, the execution of which was assigned to the RA Police.”