0 8000 12 11

The recent incident in Tavush Region, which left 3 contract soldiers dead, was most probably a result of an Azeri sabotage. This is the conclusion of the human rights activist and chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor, Artur Sakunts.

After the incident, Artur Sakunts made a comment during a discussion on facebook and he said, “Dear friends, I have to inform you that according to information received from different sources,the contractual soldiers died from gunshots during a contention. .There is some information that there were more participants and it is not yet clear what the reason was for the contention or so called “rumble” … Unfortunately, we are again dealing with a death case caused by internal reasons, and violations of disciplinary rules.”

Panorama.am talked to Artur Sakunts regarding this comment to understand the sources and grounds for his conclusions. In response, the human rights activist indicated that he had several sources; included among them, the military and residents.

Mr. Sakunts noted that his statement was not official and he had more questions than answers. Therefore, he was planning to go to Tavush Region to collect information.

That evening, Artur Sakunts stated that he visited the Tavush Region and was assured that the incident was not caused by “bovver”. “It is clear, because I checked the vehicle and talked to several people. It is clearly sabotage,” he said and stated that there was a trace of a bullet shot on the roof of the vehicle in the direction of the driver. “They also used a grenade,” said the human rights activist.

The human rights activist gave a positive response to the question, “whether it was committed by the Azerbaijani side”. Then he said: “But now, here is the issue. The Azeris entered the territory and passed by the posts, which is 300 meters away from the border. Do you understand what this is? How did they pass? This is clearly sabotage; however, the issue of border control comes up as well.”

Artur Sakunts said that the contention hypothesis was rejected because of the fact that the victims were in very close acquaintances

“They were all contractual servicemen and were very close friends. That is, we cannot speak of any motives for nuisances or arguments amongst them,’ said the human rights activist.  Sakunts also stated that the parents of the young menkilled were all former soldiers of Karabakh War and their sons followed in their footsteps.

As to the fourth serviceman in the car, Artur Sakunts stated that “he survived by a miracle”. Sakunts acknowledged that he had not talked to him: “Unfortunately, I was unable to see him, because they told me that he was in a bad condition and was still in a state of shock.

The Ministry of Defense had disseminated a statement regarding the death of the servicemen, according to which, on the morning of April 27^th, at approximately 4:15 a.m., the Sixth Garrison Investigation Division of the Investigation Service of the RA Ministry of Defensereceived an alert that while traveling in the vehicle belonging to one of the servicemen on Aygepar – Movses road, the driver of VAZ – 2107 and two other contractual servicemen had received gunshot injuries.

It was impossible to save their lives: two of the servicemen died on the way to the Berd Military Hospital and one of them in the Berd Military Hospital. “The examination of the venue revealed several traces of gunshots, which were found on the vehicle as well,” said the statement.

Later the identity of the victims was revealed: 27-year-old Davit Abgaryan, 25-year-old Aram Yesayan, and 21-year-old Arshak Nersisyan. All of them were from the town of Berd.

Further the RA MoD informed the OSCE Chairman’s Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk about the incident and was told that “all evidence spoke of Azerbaijani intrusion.”

Source: http://panorama.am