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Sitting Defense Minster Seyran Ohanyan addressed to the public trust regarding the issues of lawfulness in the army. “It should be noted that trust is not a measurable category. The growth of inaccurate, distorted or ordered disseminations in the yellow press, or increase of suspicious civil initiatives are not yet a proof for decline of trust towards the army”, specifically noted Ohanyan.

Levon Barseghyan, Chairman of Journalists’ Club “Asparez” NGO tried to draw a comparison between the possible faults of Army and mass media activities and their consequences. “Mass media happens to be mistaken, but I assure you that nobody has died from those mistakes”, stated the head of journalists’ organization.

Following the track of hearings, Larisa Alaverdyan, the first human rights defender of Armenia, one of the most practical ways to the resolution of army-related issues considered the publication of accurate and reliable data over the military crimes and their actual triggers.

“Why doesn’t the monitoring group adjunct to the Ministry of Defense, foreseen by the law, function up until now?”, inquires Alaverdyan in this regard.

Andrey Sorokin, Head of OSCE Yerevan office is convinced that one of the major prerequisites for building an actually democratic state is civil oversight over Armed Forces.

“The management level of the Armed Forces is conditioned by the close cooperation of civil society and defense field. Moreover, the amelioration of management level of the Armed Forces can contribute to the human rights protection in the army”, stated Head of OSCE Yerevan office.

Human rights defender Artur Sakunts drew the attention to the fact that, for instance, a contract party officer doesn’t have his copy of the contract.

The MoD representative opposed, “One of the contract copies is under my direct disposal”.

“I would like to answer the Colonel; we received my brother’s contract copy after his death. My mother submitted an application and it was provided to us, which was a very distorted contract. This is just for your notification. But he didn’t have his copy of the contract”, testified journalist Tzovinar Nazaryan, sister of Artak Nazaryan, who, pursuant to the official data, committed a suicide, while his relatives are convinced he was killed.

Based on the example of her brother’s death case, Tzovinar Nazaryan gave her assessment over the system of revelation of military crimes, “The preliminary investigation and accusation at court are represented by the Military Prosecutor’s office. The preliminary investigation is conducted by Investigative Service, a division subject to the Ministry of Defense, which also pursues departmental interest and I know it from my experience and numerous litigation processes I have been following that concealing of crimes is rather lawful. And the Military Prosecutor’s office certainly patronizes it. Unfortunately, not having fair trial bodies in Armenia, the courts also bring up accusation verdicts of cases brought into the court by the Military Prosecutor’s office.”

Source: http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24958309.html