On the evening of March 26, a serviceman suspected of killing Ara Georgy Arakelyan was detained in a military unit located in the northeastern part of Karabakh.
Arakelyan, 21, also a serviceman, died from a gunshot wound. Another servicemen, Andranik Kashkanyan, was sounded on the left wrist.
The Investigative Committee informed that a criminal case has been opened.
The Armenian authorities didn’t give further information about the suspect and the circumstances of the crime are still unknown.
Janna Aleksanyan, head of Journalists for Human Rights NGO, says these kinds of crimes within the Armenian military are not isolated cases. She notes that various cases of suspicious deaths of soldiers are submitted as suicides or accidents.
That was the case with Gevorg Haroyan, a 21-year-old serviceman serving in Karabakh who received severe gunshot wounds under unidentified circumstances. Initial investigation concluded that cause of death was suicide. However, further examinations excluded this version.
During an interview with CivilNet, Aleksanyan stated that there is still a policy of silence within the Armenian army.
“There is an indifference, nobody [at the government] cares that there are servicemen dying in the military bases. (…) There should be rules, orders and clear supervisions, and it is still missing,” stated Aleksanyan.
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