Non-Combat Army Deaths Are Climbing After 'Peace'
30 deaths this year versus 11 last year. This is the peace they promised.
Since Pashinyan and Aliyev declared lasting peace at the White House in August of last year, the hosts point to a grim and growing statistic: deaths in the Armenian armed forces. Around 30 this year compared to 11 the previous year as of July, and many of them non-combat. The clip opens with that contrast and then narrates the most severe recent incidents.
Hovik describes the death of conscript Suren Vardanyan and injuries to six others after commanding officers, as punishment, took soldiers out of their base in Chambarak and made them jog on a highway at night, reportedly wearing gas masks that impeded their visibility. They were run over by a vehicle. He also notes contract soldier Grigor Zakaryan, found dead with a fatal gunshot wound. What galls the hosts most is that these facts surface through the community and investigative journalists, not through government press releases, and the authorities initially denied the gas masks and the removal from base entirely.
The segment ties into a recurring theme of accountability, or its absence, under the current government. The hosts contrast today’s silence with the pre-2018 period, when a single death would trigger intense pressure from a well-funded NGO sector. Now, they argue, those NGOs are underfunded because there is no appetite to pressure the Pashinyan regime. For an audience following Armenian news, the peace process, and human rights, the rising toll of non-combat deaths raises hard questions about discipline, morale, and command responsibility in the army, and about who answers for young lives lost far from any front line.
Transcript
Hovik Manucharyan: Anyway, so let's talk about another serious statistics. So ever since Pashinyan and Aliyev have declared lasting peace in White House in August last year, there is a bewildering statistic that is growing. And unfortunately, it's not the good kind. We're talking about deaths in the Armenian Armed Forces just this year alone. There is a significant increase. I believe we have had 30 deaths this year compared to 11 last year, as of July. Some of the more recent incidents in August were most severe. There was a contract soldier, I believe, who was found dead with a fatal gunshot wound. Suren Vardanyan was a conscript. And he was killed, and six others were injured because their commanding officers had taken them out of their base in Chambarak as punishment for whatever. They had a fight in the capital here or whatever. So this genius decides to take them out of the base and make them jog on the highway at night. And apparently he also made them wear gas masks and I think that would further impede their visibility and unfortunately they were run over by a vehicle on that highway.