SOLDIER DEATHS, COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, DESERTION, CORRUPTION CASES BURST OUT IN ARMENIAN ARMY
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 8 2007
Solder deaths, communicable diseases, desertion, corruption in military
administration are widespread in Armenia’s Army. All these factors
lead to draft evading in Armenian armed forces.
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry information department told APA quoting
Greta Mirzoyan, head of "Zinvori Mayr" (Solders’ Mothers) Committee.
Mirzoyan said soldiers’ suffering from hunger in a military unit was
filmed and made public.
Armenian Military Prosecutor’s Office reports that desertion made up
74% of all crimes in the army in 2006. However, Defense Ministry does
not make public these factors. Desertion cases occur in the military
units dislocated in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, near the
front line. Draftees have been taken to military registration and
enlistment offices by force from public places since the military
operations started on the front. Military officers often go to
draftees, threaten them at their homes. Those who cannot present
necessary document or cannot afford to give bribe in return of evading
draft are taken to military units.
According to independent sources, parents of draftees have to pay
$4,000 in order to avoid serving in the military units dislocated
in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Solder of a military unit
in Noyemeryan region of Armenia, Ovanes Meltonyan committed suicide
on July 7, 2007. According to official version, 19-year-old Armenian
soldier O. Meltoniyan fired at himself. His parents, however, deny
this version. They say their son, second-year student of Agriculture
Academy was murdered. The breaks, injuries, handrprints on his body
prove this version.
Greta Mirzoyan also said drunkard officers in a military unit pushed
other servicemen to a ravine. In another military unit, military
officers spread honey on a young soldier and made them die by biting
of different insects. In Kanaker regiment newly drafted soldier was
beaten to death on the very day, who died in the hospital.
Mikhael Danielyan, member of Armenian Helsinki Association for human
rights reported that nearly 800 soldiers die in Armenian armed forces
every year because of bullying.