New Recruit Forced to Clean Toilets, Subjected to Brutal Beating

A scandalous incident has occurred at one of the military units in Kapan. Relatives of conscript Vle Feroyan, who contacted Irakanum.am, report that their family member was brutally beaten and forced to clean toilets. Specifically, they informed the news outlet that on January 31, conscript Vle Feroyan (an ethnic Yezidi) was degraded and beaten by the command staff of his unit, after which the soldier attempted to escape.

“They are abusing the child, keeping him from food from morning until night, not letting him into the cafeteria, keeping him outside, saying until you clean the toilets, you won’t enter the barracks. The child has been left outside for a long time, when he approaches to drink water, they don’t let him. After one o'clock, he calls home and says that the situation is like this there, after that we have no news from the child,” said the soldier's uncle.

He stated that the incident occurred yesterday, on February 1. “He was taken to the army on the 31st, and by the 1st, all this had happened. ‘It was a quarantine barrack,’ said Armen Avagyan. The commander of his unit, Tsolak Khachatryan, called him over and said, ‘You have been given an order that you must fulfill; if you don’t, I will raise the entire battalion against you, and you will clean the toilets in front of everyone,’” the soldier's relative recounted.

There were five other new recruits with Vle Feroyan. The citizen who contacted us insisted that those recruits were also subjected to beating. “There were six boys there, they were hitting them; our boy refused to clean, and they kept him outside until one of them remained,” said Vle Feroyan's uncle.

Since yesterday, the relatives of the recruit have had no information. “Today we hear from the commander that he should return, and everything will be fine; we won’t say anything military. All day they have dragged the child through the offices, saying he must clean,” said the relative.

Currently, the relatives of the new recruits have left Aparan for Yerevan, heading to the Ministry of Defense. They will also be joined by the relatives of the other five soldiers conscripted on the same day.

Photos were published with the consent of the relatives.