Prosecutor's Office Reports on Soldier Casualties in 2024

Under the leadership of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia Anna Vardapetyan and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, a summary of the Military Prosecutor's Office activities for 2024 was conducted on March 7, 2025. The Prosecutor's Office reports that the summary was attended by the Military Prosecutor of Armenia, Deputy Prosecutor General Grigor Elizbaryan, Head of the Military Police Department of the Ministry of Defense Ashot Zakaryan, Head of the Military Counterintelligence Department of the National Security Service David Sanamyan, Head of the Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee Arman Aslanyan, deputy military prosecutors, military prosecutors of garrisons, and others.

During the summary, Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan expressed gratitude to Defense Minister Suren Papikyan for accepting the invitation to participate, emphasizing the importance of jointly analyzing the work done, as well as discussions on new initiatives and existing challenges. "We pay great attention to discipline in the army, and I thank you for inviting me to conduct a master class, and I plan to hold several more at higher military education institutions. Our goal is singular: to promote command leadership and reduce various manifestations of subculture in the army. I am hopeful that this will be our contribution to the reforming army. We continue our work to uncover illegally appropriated properties and return them to the army. You know that we already have studies on about eight military units, we have returned several units, and there are units that are subject to claims within the framework of protecting state interests. Our goal is to return every property and monetary unit that did not serve the army's purpose to the state budget and to the army," emphasized the Prosecutor General.

Defense Minister Suren Papikyan highlighted the importance of continuing effective cooperation aimed at creating a more disciplined and regulation-based army.

Military Prosecutor Grigor Elizbaryan reported on incidents recorded in the army in 2024, initiated criminal cases, criminal cases handed over to courts by prosecutors with prosecutorial conclusions, and the outcomes of studies conducted by the division for the protection of state interests, among other things.

According to the military prosecutor, in the previous year, there were 2,093 incidents recorded in the Armed Forces (compared to 2,358 in 2023). Out of these, 762 were accidents (803 in 2023), while 1,331 were incidents of alleged crimes (1,555 in 2023), including 715 military crimes (847 in 2023), 616 other crimes (708 in 2023), 178 serious crimes (242 in 2023), and 39 particularly serious crimes (78 in 2023).

In 2024, 40 soldiers died (in various circumstances) in the Armed Forces, with 27 of them related to service conditions (including 4 members of Yerkrapah, 5 due to homicide, including 1 Yerkrapah member, 1 exercise participant due to fire, 7 suicides, 4 traffic accidents, 1 violation of combat vehicle driving regulations, 2 aviation accidents, 3 diseases including 1 Yerkrapah member, and 1 accident), while 13 deaths were unrelated to service conditions (3 from illness, 7 from traffic accidents, 1 suicide, 2 accidents).

In 2024, prosecutors submitted 904 criminal cases with prosecutorial conclusions to the court involving 1,026 individuals (compared to 975 criminal cases involving 1,275 individuals in 2023). In 2024, 937 criminal cases involving 1,089 individuals were examined and concluded in court (compared to 496 cases involving 578 individuals in 2023), with guilty verdicts rendered in 751 cases involving 842 individuals (394 cases involving 426 individuals in 2023).

According to the military prosecutor, studies conducted by the state interests protection division of the Military Central Prosecutor's Office and military prosecutors in garrisons indicated that the damage caused to the state amounted to 5 billion 677 million 550 thousand drams (compared to 5 billion 62 million 243 thousand drams in 2023). In 2024, through extrajudicial means, 11 million 310 thousand US dollars equivalent to 4 billion 462 million 706 thousand drams was recovered (compared to 2 billion 482 million 453 thousand drams in 2023).

At the end of the summary, the Defense Minister and Prosecutor General addressed several important issues and discussed the format and directions for the development of cooperation.