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In his response to HCA Vanadzor Reference on Death Cases in Armed Forces in January-September 2016, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, RA Defense Ministry Spokesman, provided some judgments on which we consider it necessary to provide our response.

It is noteworthy that in January-September 2016, the first source to share reports on 146 death cases was the RA Ministry of Defense or the NK Defense Army sharing 141 death cases, which was quite rare in the previous years and there is enhanced transparency in this respect. However, there is no adequate transparency in providing information on the details of the circumstances of the death cases.

By referring to the RA MoD Spokesman’s claim that the qualifications and assessments provided are premature since the criminal proceedings of the death cases are still under investigation and are sometimes qualified in a wrong way, we consider it necessary to note that all the qualifications are provided based on the official qualifications under relevant articles of the RA Criminal Code, the mass media reports and information provided by the servicemen’s families, which in case of any further official requalification are also further submitted by the Organization.

As for the Mr. Hovhannisyan’s judgment on the Organization’s assessment on the sharp growth in the rate of death cases due to murder and suicide that “usually such assessments may be issued upon completion of investigation and finalization of qualifications”, we consider it necessary to note that such assessments of murders or suicides are also issued by the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office when providing the causes of the death.