Naira Zohrabyan gives details about the Abovyan morgue
Soldiers’ bodies are transported from morgue to morgue in plastic bags for months, and parents search for their sons in Azerbaijani videos. The remains of our fallen soldiers in the Abovyan morgue, stuffed inside plastic bags and dumped on the ground, shocked the public.
Parliamentary deputy Naira Zohrabyan visited the morgue on Wednesday and spoke about it in detail with Aravot Daily. She explained the terrifying feeling she had after the visit, to walk for miles on her own to forget the smell, and to somehow “digest” that scene. “It was horrible, that atmosphere, that smell, I was just being chased. I haven’t been able to get over that scene until now.” Naira Zohrabyan spoke about what happened, who failed, and why we had to witness that scene. “In fact, the bodies were in the Metsamor morgue. On May 27, the morgue’s refrigerator was damaged and the bodies were taken to the Kotayk Forensic Medicine Center, and when we saw that horrible scene in two rooms, it was about 46 corpses, they were taken from Metsamor. I opened the refrigerator and looked. It had room for 10 bodies, but there were 6 corpses at that moment.”
Naira Zohrabyan said that a bad incident occurred in the morgue. Angry parents attacked the morgue’s director. “To be honest, I am surprised that they attacked the director of the morgue and not Nikol Pashinyan, who is the only one to blame and the only one responsible for this. Their children’s bodies have been in bags for months, and they are being transported from morgue to morgue. After the uproar, the majority of the bodies were transported to the Martuni morgue yesterday. There is more room at that morgue, and the refrigerator has a higher capacity.”
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There were rumors that hundreds of bodies were thrown on the ground in that state. When asked if those rumors are false, Naira Zohrabyan responded, “There are no bodies that haven’t had samples taken from them. At the moment, there are 50 bodies out of many from which it is impossible to gather a DNA sample. There are 149 bodies where DNA samples have been taken, but they do not correspond to any of the parents’. Either some of the parents did not provide a sample, or we can not rule out the possibility that they are Azerbaijanis’ bodies because those bodies are unrecognizable to everyone, and there is no way to recognize them anymore. There are bodies that have been identified, but they gave the same identification result to two different women. They either made a mistake, or, considering that we are a monoethnic nation, such identifications happen, unfortunately. The parents still have hope that they will find their sons. Or, they watch Azeri videos and believe that the videos are of their sons. There are many cases where the results were positive, but they refuse to come and get their child’s body. In this case, I think those who have doubts need to appeal so that a second examination can take place, and if that examination confirms the initial result, they have to come and bury their children.”
As a result, a service investigation is underway at the order of the acting Prime Minister. The acting Minister of Health, Anahit Avanesyan, apologized to the soldiers’ families. According to Naira Zohrabyan, those apologies and actions are not serious. “Now, they will fire some people. No matter what they do, it is useless. We are facing such a huge disaster that I no longer care if the head of a department will be fired. The fact is that these people kept these bodies in refrigerators for months; they could not organize the process competently. They bought the DNA identification device for 110 million drams more than its real price. These people even made money on misfortune and tragedy and tried to cover up the situation.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
