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The four-day April war showed that mostly sons of socially deprived families serve at the Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijani border hot spots and forefront; as revealed by numerous publications, most of the perished servicemen came from families living in extremely critical social conditions.

In April, families living in critical social conditions on the edge of extreme poverty, in houses with earthen floor and without the basic living conditions bid farewell to the soldiers perished at the forefront after fighting up to the last ditch.

“Servicemen sent to the forefront, not most but rather all of them, come from socially deprived families”, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor (HCAV), said in his interview to Medialab.

Artur Sakunts notes that HCAV sent numerous inquiries to the Ministry of Defense to obtain information on the places where conscripts from the families of officials serve, but always received from the Ministry the answer that no such registration records were kept.

“They should keep such records now, and not only records of conscripts from the families of officials, but also in general records of the conscripts by the social situation of their families, initial places of military service of young people and changing of such places during their service. This is the requirement of the public, this is the requirement of the right of the public to be informed of the state of compliance with the principle of equality before the law, without which neither the Ministry of Defense, nor the state can have any expectations for any trust”, Sakunts noted.

Otherwise, according to the human rights defender, without such information, any explanation would be not only unreliable or suspicious but also groundless.

The human rights defender points out that this also means that all the statements and promises that the place of service is determined in a draw and that call-ups are accompanied by constant struggle against possible demonstrations of corruption are refuted at least by the social insecurity of the families of the perished soldiers.

“Or, it should be assumed that only young people from socially deprived families take part in the draw, and those from socially secure families are called up by an absolutely different “draw” which is not announced”.

The human rights defender’s words are completed by the stories of the extremely poor families of the servicemen perished in the April four-day war. Such stories brought about another wave of heated discussions among different social strata.

Yezidi private soldier Kyaram Sloyan, who would become 20 years old on April 27, was among the first casualties of the April war.

Once the videos and photos on the extremely hard social conditions of Kyaram’s family were published, the society got extremely excited.

Their unfinished house with damp rooms and earthen floor and without the basic living conditions, situated on the slope of a mountain not far from Artashavan village in Aragatsotn marz (region), even had no roof.

However, Kyaram’s case is not the only one. Numerous subsequent stories clearly showed the extremely poor situation of the families of the soldiers perished at the forefront.

The family of 19-year-old conscript soldier Davit Hayrapetyan lives in Zolakar village of Gegharkunik marz (region).

In his interview to Medialab, Arman Ghazaryan, head of Zolakar village, mentions that Hayrapetyans’ family is large and lives in extremely poor conditions.

“They are socially deprived, their house lacks facelift and looks like stone and concrete. Davit’s father and brother used to leave for migrant work to survive. Nowadays, the situation in Russia is not good and they found themselves in an even worse situation. Their mother does not work, they have no bathroom and the toilet is outside of the house. They can hardly make both ends meet,” Ghazaryan says.

Another casualty of the four-day April war is private soldier Rafik Hakobyan from Karmrashen village of Aragatsotn marz (region).

Artashes Melikyan, head for Karmrashen village, said in his interview to Medialab that the boy and his parents were in St. Petersburg and added that “it was not from good life that they had left for migrant work.”

“Due to poor conditions, the entire family left for Leningrad to earn a living. As it was time for Rafik’s call-up, they came back and sent the boy to do his military service in the army. Karmrashen is a high-mountain village, and there are no jobs here. Their house is a dilapidated and run-down; they went abroad to work to return here and live in normal conditions”, Melikyan said to Medialab.

When talking about the living conditions of conscript soldier Arman Andreasyan perished in the four-day war, and his family, Styopa Chobanyan, Head of Mets Mantash village of Shirak marz (region), emphasized their socially deprived situation.   

“What living conditions? They have no house and no place of their own. The child was a lively and hard-working boy; he started working probably at the age of 12 to help his family. His parents do not work; their family is large and they are socially deprived. His father sometimes left for migrant work to earn a living”, the head of the village said to Medialab.

The family of perished Zhora Yesayan lives in Darbnik village of Ararat marz (region). The villagers mentioned that Zhora’s father was a bus driver and could hardly earn his daily bread.

The same holds true for 19-year-old Grigor Harutyunyan. He also perished during the four-day war. Grigor’s family also was socially deprived; they always rented a place to live moving from one house to another.

In recent years, Grigor studied at a boarding school, he wanted to continue his studies at a college, but he could not do so due to lack of funds.

Grigor’s mother and his younger brother now are in an extremely hard social situation and live in a building in emergency conditions in Gajegortsneri Street. In their interview to News.am, their relatives said as follows:

“He was a weary child. The only thing he thought about was to work and get out of the difficult social situation, so that they could stand up to their feet and his mother could be cured… By his hard work, with his own hands he tried to make their house, that cannot even be called so, look like a house. His elder brother also served in the army and returned home with some health problems.”

In his interview to Medialab, Edik Baghdasaryan, editor of Hetq online, who had always been to the forefront during the hot days of the war and before, said that while talking to the boys he had found that they came from socially deprived families and he had not come across any sons of officials.

“There are many boys whose fathers are migrant workers in Russia. They say that as soon as they complete their military service, they would leave for migrant work, too.”

“Obviously, during the military service, discrimination is practiced by the social security level of the soldier’s family or the social strata to which soldier’s family belongs. The Defense Minister’s clarifications on such discrimination have not been credible so far”, said Artur Sakunts to Medialab.

Note that on April 16 when answering a question of journalists on why there were only sons from socially deprived families at the forefront, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan spoke about the issues related to higher education, post-graduate studies, scientific theses and deferment from military service among the children of socially deprived social strata.

“I think in the present conditions, only the children from families of the medium and upper social strata enter higher educational institutions, and most of them become sergeants or particular specialists, depending on the specialties of primary importance in the armed forces. In addition, there is the reality of the present-day Armenia, i.e. the situation of the people. If you make an analysis, you will see that these are objective reasons”, he said stressing that “everybody’s son is at the forefront.”

“As for me, my son serves there, he is an officer. The son of the Head of the General Staff and the sons of a number of high-ranking officials were there during these days, – he said, – sons of many officials serve in the army. Should I now say one by one who they are?”

However, human rights defender Artur Sakunts insists that the allegations of the public below are more than appropriate: even if the military units, where conscripts would do their service, are determined in a draw, the process of sending conscripts to the forefront demonstrates corruption.

“Let us again cite the very sad statistics: most of the casualties, if not all of them, come from socially deprived families. In fact, since the hostilities did not merely cover the area of a single sector or a single military unit, but rather the entire dividing line, such a “coincidence” cannot happen by accident. Not only would it be honest, but also adequate in terms of realizing responsibility before the public not to manipulate absurd explanations or interpretations in an attempt to forge the obvious reality, but rather to investigate why and how such coincidence occurred. Also, the results of such an investigation should be disclosed.”

He notes that he has already publicly stated the necessity of such an investigation and now time should be spent on conducting such an investigation.

“Otherwise, if these questions remain unanswered, this will not contribute to the much-needed change in the situation. The soldiers should not pay with their own lives for social injustice.”

Edik Baghdasaryan says that the question of whether the sons of officials serve in the army or not regularly appears in the spotlight of the press.

“Of course, there are some vague explanations and some answers. But this is a closed topic. Even by “screening with a microscope”, you will not find the son of any official on the border. It should be said that there are no such examples, except for the sons of a few servicemen.”

Avetik Ishkhanyan, Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia, states that while the call-up method has changed  to some extent in the recent years due to the draw, he is sure that corruption in the army persists.

As to the clarification of Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan to the effect that the children of many socially secure families study at higher institutions, etc., Ishkhanyan raises the question below:

“Is their studying justified in all cases? How do they continue their post-graduate studies? Are the children from socially deprived families not capable of studying? Master’s and post-graduate studies are a matter of capacities and not of money. In other words, it follows from the Minister’s words, that he admitted that in our country education is granted to those who are well-off. This is a very serious issue; does it mean that the children of the poor are thrown out of education, and who decides it? The corruption, in terms of the very issue of evading military service, begins with the higher educational institutions, doesn’t it? The Minister’s statement seems to imply various branches of corruption,” said Ishkhanyan to Medialab.

Human rights defender Ishkhanyan says that if we ask numerous officials, and especially those who did not serve in the army but speak about patriotism, and many others questions on the theses they defended, none of them can give a coherent answer.

“It is so, as all such false theses were written for them to exempt them from the military service and grant them an academic diploma of a scientist” he said.

Ishkhanyan says that an investigation should be carried out into how and on what topic the persons who became scientists and were exempted from serving in the army defended their post-graduate theses.

“I’m sure that the theses defended by them are waste papers”, he says.

As to the ways the human rights defender sees to establish equality in the army, eliminate the discriminatory approach towards the sons of the well-off and those of the poor and to reduce corruption risks, Avetik Ishkhanyan says that it was very difficult to do anything especially given the NKR issue and the state of permanent war. He mentions that if no changes in the overall social atmosphere occur, the future will be very predictable and ominous.

According to Ishkhanyan, an open and independent investigation should be carried out to find out the sons of which official or well-of persons served in the army, or where they served at the forefront and on hot spots or on the contrary, and of course all the findings should be disclosed.

“An atmosphere should be created for the well-off and officials or their children to feel ashamed for not having served in the army. If no such atmosphere is created, no matter how much we talk about corruption, we will achieve no results, Avetik Ishkhanyan said to Medialab. – And actually, it turns out that the children of socially disadvantaged families save Armenia’s face.”

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