10 Child Deaths Recorded. Kocharyan Indicates the Cause

The discussion on the draft law on the Republic of Armenia's 2025 state budget continues in the parliament. Andranik Kocharyan, the co-reporter and chairman of the Permanent Commission on Defense and Security Issues, reminded that the budget allocations related to all the forces of the power structures and the provisions of program budgeting have been discussed jointly with the budgetary commissions.

Kocharyan highlighted the closed discussions of the debates without presenting any factual data, stating that both government and opposition MPs participated in those discussions. He noted that particularly concerning topics regarding the Ministry of Internal Affairs included illegal drug trafficking and the issues of combating and preventing homicides.

According to him, the issue of traffic accidents resulting in fatalities was also discussed, revealing that the number of victims during the recent period reached 378, which Kocharyan characterized as "extremely concerning" given the current realities. "Among the contributing factors for these cases, the presence of tinted windows in several vehicles, the lack of booster seats designed for children, and in many cases, the unacceptable seating of minors in the front seats of vehicles were identified," Andranik Kocharyan stated, informing that the issue of booster seats has been addressed.

"The suggestion is from our colleague Sona Ghazaryan," Kocharyan said. He noted that when it came to statistics, a question was raised regarding how many children aged 1 to 10 had died due to the lack of booster seats from January 1, 2024, to present, and it turned out that 10 such death cases had been recorded. Kocharyan considered even one case of such death as "very alarming."

"It was also mentioned in the commission’s meeting that it may not be excessive to allocate necessary funds in the Ministry of Internal Affairs' state budget proposal for conducting additional examinations of police officers' health due to the fact that during the recent period, 47 police officers were dismissed for drug use. This is a very concerning number," added the chairman of the National Assembly's Defense and Security Issues Commission. He stated that all the power structures say they undergo tests before joining the service, but "we are faced with such numbers." "This had also been discussed previously," Kocharyan noted.