After the change of power in 2018, about the cases recorded in the army at different times in publications We asked the question: “Why does the editor-in-chief of “HZ” Anna Hakobyan not ask the “commander-in-chief” Nikol Pashinyan the questions that she once asked Seyran Ohanyan of the Ministry of Defense?” Were they given, at least not publicly?

Moreover, during his parliamentary term Hayk Sargsyan, deputy of CP spoke from the various vicious phenomena encountered in the army, playing lotteries among servicemen, drinking, using drugs, and again, there is no voice that these phenomena are flourishing in civil life, public life, in general, in Armenia, and the fight against which is the responsibility of the country’s leadership. If there is a strong fight here, they will not enter the army, but they will be one in a thousand.

On January 19, 2023, the fire at the Azat shelter took place, in which 15 soldiers died, and Anna Hakobyan did not raise a single voice about the conditions created there for the soldiers, why should a house with no normal conditions become a military shelter, although Nikol Pashinyan did not rush to the scene of the incident, instead, he hurried to put forward a hypothesis about what caused the fire. At that time, even KP deputy Vilen Gabrielyan had announced.

“If I were in the opposition, I would demand the resignation of the Minister of Defense. But I am not an oppositionist, I am Suren Papikyan’s teammate. therefore, I support him in solving the problems in the army.”

Of course, in the case of the current government, changing the Minister of Defense will not bring anything good, if not to say the opposite. Let’s not forget that after the change of government in 2018, we had several ministers: Davit Tonoyan, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, Arshak Karapetyan, and now Suren Papikyan: The same picture is in the case of the Chief of the General Staff: Movses Hakobyan, Artak Davtyan (twice), Onik Gasparyan, Edward Asryan, we still do not count Kamo Kochuntsi’s acting head of the General Directorate for a few months.

Let’s go back to Anna Hakobyan. On July 21, according to the Investigative Committee, soldier Narek Torosyan committed suicide in the Chambarak military unit, he was a student of the Armenian-Russian University. Later, two of his fellow soldiers were arrested on charges of negligent suicide.

And now Anna Hakobyan has decided on this address this case.

«The other day, society was once again shocked by a terrifying incident in the armed forces. one of the servicemen committed suicide act then it became known that two of his fellow soldiers were charged with negligent suicide. This is not the first case, and naturally there is great concern.

And I saw that a number of public organizations made a statement in this regard. And in that statement, they noted that only in 2026, 8 cases of death in non-combat conditions were recorded in the RA Armed Forces, in relation to most of which, according to the reports of the Investigative Committee, criminal proceedings were initiated under the articles of murder and suicide of the RA Criminal Code.

“The study of the cases of death documents that The violence and humiliation of servicemen in the RA armed forces is of a continuous nature and is manifested both by physical violence and by various manifestations of degrading treatment, intimidation, as well as by long-term abuse of official or de facto power.” stated in the statement.

They demand a ban on degrading treatment in the armed forces, prevention of violence and protection of servicemen in vulnerable situations. Many demands have been presented on a number of points, one of them was the one mentioned. They also demand that a multidisciplinary study be carried out as soon as possible to comprehensively assess the causes and contributing factors of violence and suicide, including the study of previous incidents of violence, command responses, psychological risks and other influencing circumstances, and make it public.

Naturally, the authors of this statement and not only them are extremely concerned and are looking for a solution. No one can remain indifferent to such cases, and the concern is shared by all. When I searched for the mentioned announcement with keywords to quote, I came across a news item with the same title, after opening it I saw that it was a 2012 news item, and the announcement, title, content were exactly the same, essentially. 14 years have passed, but our concern is the same.” Anna Hakobyan says during the live broadcast on Facebook.

In other words, in the army created by Nikol Pashinyan, there is no improvement in terms of statutes compared to the army of the previous ones, or is this said in the sense that the morals in the society have remained the same? Maybe Hakobyan means both, one indirectly and seeing RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan as a target, the other directly.

Anyway, Anna Hakobyan, talking about the roots of violence in the armed forces, took it to domestic violence, which, according to her, is protected by law. And in this context, he did not ignore the serious level of crimes among minors, when instead of solving problems in a civilized way, beatings and knives are chosen. And with more favorable “conditions” that culture is transferred to the Armed Forces.

Let us add that during one of the government meetings last year, Nikol Pashinyan, referring to the non-statutory cases recorded in the army and the deaths in non-combat conditions, noted. 

“Yeah well, one, two, three, four, ten, then whenever you study, you read, you read, you read, you read, you read, you order research, you ask, and you say, wait a minute, but none of these problems have arisen in the army. Not one.

All these problems come from civilian life in pieces. in one place, the pieces of the puzzle come together in one place, and the puzzle comes together. With very simple logic, very simple reasoning, and we do not understand this. We go, we say, let’s do this in the army, it’s too late to do it in the army, folks. We can’t do anything in the army either, we have to do it in the kindergarten, school, we have to do it in the university.”

After the reaction of RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, Pashinyan added that steps should be taken in the army as well, this does not mean that nothing should be done there.

And in this context, Pashinyan went on to give socio-psychological lessons that our children leave school without psychological preparation, enter life without psychological preparation, psychologically weak, with a weak will.

At that time, we wrote that the above-mentioned vicious phenomena not only enter the army, but also strengthen and spread in the army, society is not the only one to blame for this, especially if we take into account the situation in schools today, the prevalence of drugs among minors, and the fact that there is not a day without shootings. Who is responsible for this, according to Anna Hakobyan, isn’t the head of the country the first person responsible for not being able to put the situation in the country in order?

And did Anna Hakobyan observe the behavior, behavior and manner of speaking of Nikol Pashinyan, representatives of the government and their close or patronage with their opponents or journalists? Who was responsible for this? And Nikol Pashinyan’s speech does not contain violence?

The situation in the country, the atmosphere of impunity for those enjoying the patronage of the government is also important.

So when Anna Hakobyan distributed to public organizations from the announcement specially singles out and presents the parts where it is described that the violence in the army led by Nikol Pashinyan’s teammate, the humiliation of servicemen has a continuous nature and is manifested both by physical violence and by various manifestations of degrading treatment, intimidation, the above should be emphasized as well, not only domestic violence.

By the way, the same statement about psychological violence, can we say that today the citizens of RA are not under psychological pressure, when they know that any speech can become a criminal case, which does not threaten the provocateurs of the government?

As for the incidents in the army, they also have deep reasons related only to the army: lack of human resources, regular and scheduled sleep, issues related to combat duty, when today’s soldier is serving under the enemy’s nose and will have to swallow many things because we are going for a peace agenda, or who is the hero of today’s soldier, what is the task before him, and so on. There are many narrow professional questions that are a separate topic for discussion.

And Anna Hakobyan’s reaction to the latest incident recorded in the army is as ordinary as we can consider it, not random and containing footnotes, from the time chosen to the words and formulations.

By the way, the other day, one of the official bloggers also targeted RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan.

In other words, there is no military parade anymore, the votes are secured at the expense of the army… moreover, on the day of the vote, no one saw any signs of humiliation of the soldiers, now suddenly the government circles began to notice what they did not notice, coincidence?… Post-election times, their own “attestation…”.

P.S. By the way, does Anna Hakobyan know that it has been several years since Nikol Pashinyan does not go to military bases and military units to congratulate soldiers and officers on the eve of the New Year?

This, however, is a rather serious indicator of the attitude towards the army.

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