Yesterday another incident took place in the investigation department of the Ministry of Defense between mothers of a few soldiers who had died in the army under peaceful conditions and officials of the investigation department, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia. According to www.epress.am, the situation became so tense that Yura Badalyan, an investigator of special cases, Republic of Armenia Military Prosecutor’s Office, pushed them back, insulted and called Irina Ghazaryan, the mother of Artur Ghazaryan who had died in the army, a “whore”? www.aravot.am talked to Gohar Sargsyan, the mother of Tigran Ohanjanyan, a serviceman who had died in 2007. She told about the incident in detail, “We went to the investigation department of the Ministry of Defense from the Government Building, in order to get information on the cases of our children. The investigators of some parents’ cases had changed, but they hadn’t had information for three months. When we said that we wanted to see Armen Harutyunyan, the head of division, Meri Sargsyan, his press secretary, said that he couldn’t receive us at that moment, we had to come on Tuesday. Nana Muradyan, Vahe Muradyan’s mother, and Anahit Mkrtchyan got annoyed, because they couldn’t come every day, since they were not from the city. Particularly given the fact that we saw that Harutyunyan was inside, his car was parked outside. At that moment, Irina Ghazaryan, whose son died in 2010 and the case has been closed, said with annoyance that ‘not only have you killed our children, you have also concealed the cases.’ The other parents also got irritated, ‘Why haven’t you at least informed us in three months, we may even think that it hasn’t happened at all, why do you show such an attitude?’ At that moment, Yura Badalyan came out of his office and said insulting us that ‘who are these people, they have come and shout at the top of their lungs, it was the right thing to do.’ At that moment, Irina called him a nonentity, she said that ‘who are you to judge whether it was right or wrong, not only have
you killed our sons, you have also cooperated with Shota and concealed the cases of our sons’ etc….”
Mrs. Sargsyan told that after this incident Yura Badalyan came and said that “who are these people, get them out of here.” Bulghadaryan said that it was enough of curses etc. According to G. Sargsyan, one of the parents, Nana, asked, “Would you keep silent, if you were us?”
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G. Sargsyan said with annoyance during a conversation with us, “One shouldn’t put mothers who lost their sons under such pressure. Years have passed and nothing has changed in the cases of our children.”
The mothers who lost their sons have applied to Serzh Sargsyan, the Ministry of Defense, the Human Rights Defender, the prosecutor and Tigran Sargsyan in writing. www.aravot.am tried to get clarification during a conversation with Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the press secretary of the Ministry of Defense what had been done about the application of the parents. He replied, “If the application was made in accordance with the respective procedure, it will be considered. If they applied yesterday, it is not possible that they will get an answer today. One needs as much time as is necessary for consideration.”
In response to our observation that the use of violence against the mothers who had lost their sons had become regular and what measures the Ministry of Defense wished to take, Mr. Hovhannisyan said the following, “The Ministry of Defense has no direct connection with that. The prosecutor’s office, investigation and law-enforcement bodies deal with those issues.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
