Today the Army in Reality initiative organized a march from the Government House to the Presidential Palace with posters, on which “Don’t Give up on Others, and They Will Not Give up on You,” “No to Violence and Killings in the Army” and other slogans were written. They also tried to hand out leaflets about physical and psychological violence imposed on soldiers in the army to passersby, but the latter basically did not take. The activists were not disappointed by that, saying, “It is characteristic of Armenians, they do nothing until they are involved personally.”
The activists of the initiative assured that killings in the army were concealed and presented as suicides and judges served as notaries instead of conducting fair examination, they only sealed by the order from above.
Mother of Artak Nazaryan who died in the army Hasmik Hovhannisyan stated during a conversation with Aravot.am that they wanted to bring Artak’s case from Ijevan to Yerevan by that march, “We bring the trial to Yerevan somehow, then they transfer it to Ijevan again – the only goal is to conceal the murder. This is an order from above.” Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the head of the supervising agency of the president, received and talked to her a month ago, “He said, ‘Madam, give me 2 days.’ A month has passed, there is no response. It is obvious from the case that my son was killed and they are deaf and dumb.”
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Tsovinar Nazaryan, an activist of the Army in Reality group observed, “It is hopeless to expect anything from judges, because they constantly deny our motions and the judge supports the prosecutor. So, it becomes clear that one shouldn’t expect anything from them, but from their boss, the President of the Republic of Armenia. We demand in regard to the case of Artak Nazaryan that they bring it to Yerevan, because they obviously conceal it in Ijevan.”
In response to our question what was the guarantee that the trial would be fair in Yerevan, Tsovinar Nazaryan said, “That judge has completely compromised himself, we want the judge to be replaced. Besides, the public pressure in Yerevan is bigger and that pressure will have an impact on them.”
Today is the Day of the Soviet Army and members of the initiative stated that they should always keep their fingers on the pulse, regardless of days, “We are talking right now and we don’t know – perhaps the Ministry of Defense is making another statement on yet another victim.” Activists also talked about the latest case of a soldier who had died from pneumonia, “We understood talking to professionals that there is a very complex procedure for taking a soldier to the hospital. The commanding officers of the defense army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic have to approve, in order that a soldier is transferred to the Yerevan hospital and before they get such permission, the man has already died.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
