Lawyer Claims Soldiers Had Specific Information Before Tragic Fire and Were Liquidated

Lawyer Norair Norikyan, who represents the parents of 13 victims of the fire that broke out at the military unit in the village of Azat, Gegharkunik region, stated during a press conference that an agreement has been reached with the affected parties to conduct their own investigation.

“Literally yesterday, an agreement was reached with the prosecutorial body that interviews with the victims will start from February 10. As the official representative of the victims, today or tomorrow, I will be submitting a written request to the Minister of Defense and the Military Prosecutor, demanding that they meet with the victims either together or separately and present relevant reports and clarifications,” he said.

Norikyan presented the overall assessment of the victims regarding the incident. “There is a belief that this tragedy is the result of personnel policy errors in the armed forces, the lack of strategic and conceptual thinking, a crisis of values, the presence of non-statutory relationships, a lack of professionalism and accountability, and neglect. This should become the last drop of patience for society; our army must stop being a death army. The parents of the deceased soldiers do not believe the official version, nor do they trust the positions expressed by state competent bodies,” he said.

“We are concerned that there will be an attempt to cover up the incident. Parents are convinced that their children were either already dead or at least unconscious before the fire, and that the fire itself aimed to hide some evidence or divert public attention through the blaze,” Norikyan stated.

The lawyer added: “What exact duties were these children performing? What services were they rendering? What equipment or resources were they handling? Parents fear that based on the operational behavior of their children, the information they possessed could have made them targets and led to their liquidation. That is, they had specific information, and that fact became the cause of their deaths,” he said.

Norikyan pointed out that the parents have reasons not to trust the official version, and those reasons stem from the unprofessional behavior displayed by certain circles immediately after the incident.