“It is difficult for me to assess the share of individual guilt of that military personnel.” To the question: How would you rate dismissals in the armed forces hours after the fire without an investigation? In the “Media Center” during the discussion on the topic “Tragedy in the N military unit and why did it happen?” reacted Daniel Ioannisyan, the founder and program coordinator of the “Union of Informed Citizens” public organization. Referring to the issue of taking responsibility for the fire at the shelter of the N military unit of the RA Ministry of Defense in the Azat village, Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan said: “In case of such scandalous incidents, there are dismissals at the highest level in any democratic country, and if they are not there, then we are dealing with serious systemic gaps and problems.”
Zaruhi Hovhannisyan highlighted whether, after the 2020 bloody war, after our various positional changes, the military units in RA are adequately furnished. Are the soldiers stationed in such building conditions that can be considered proper and safe for human living and life? In this case, we can say no,” she added: “In the third decade of the 21st century, it is unacceptable to have such conditions that the military unit is heated with a stove.”
According to Daniel Ioannisyan, this problem should be addressed globally: what is our nationwide approach to safety rules? Artur Sakunts, head of the HCA Vanadzor office, disagreed. He was resentful. “The question of heating, the question of instructions, and the question of operation rules is the direct responsibility of the command. What, do you leave it on the soldier?” “The problem is not only fire safety, not only shelters, not only not turning the barn into a shelter. The problem is that there needs to be control of the armed forces. We often say Soviet traditions. It is much worse than the Soviet one. We are in a situation where we give glory to the Soviet times. And in such a lousy management system and the case of total public loyalty, it will not be expected that there will be fire safety in the accommodation of the military. Serious things have to change in this country. The command of the Armed Forces will undergo significant changes.”
Artur Sakunts agreed with the observations regarding the quality of governance and said that the problem is not only the lack of ability but also the lack of ambition. “Even though they can’t, they don’t want to listen. At least they don’t even say we can provide these solutions to the problems raised many times. One cannot withdraw from public opinion and isolate oneself. Why was that revolution made to be managed in the same way?…in that military unit, there were not even normal windows for people to open and get out. We receive alerts from service members’ parents; we publish them, but zero attitudes.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
