Cases of Torture Continue in the Army

On September 6, 2011, “We won’t keep silent” Youth Initiative posted a video on the internet, which touched upon the recent incident that  occurred to Ararat village native soldier, 20-year-old Hovhannes Vardan Vardanyan, who served in the army.

According to the film scenario, the soldier was forced into madness during his service in the army and later sent to a psychiatric treatment center, where he was subjected to negligence.  In order to find out more details in the case, the representatives of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor had a meeting with Vardan Vardanyan, the father of Hovhannes Vardanyan, on the evening of September 6th.

According to the information conveyed by the victim’s father, his son, Private H. Vardanyan was called up to serve in the RA Army on May 21, 2010 and served at the # 34153 military unit of Askeran. His father confirmed that his son had not encountered any problems during his service until June of 2011. According to Vardan, during the first two months of his military service, his son asked him to transfer money to a bank account. After that, he never complained of his service, but periodically called home. His father transferred money to Hovhannes’s bank account but he did not specify the sum of money transferred. The last time Hovhannes called home was in mid June after which his father received no news from him for about 17 days as the cell-phone number he used to call him was in the “out of  range zone”. 

An unknown soldier broke the sad news to Hovhannes’s father by stating, “Hovhannes had an argument with the officers and disappeared.” Through another call from the same soldier or someone else,  Vardan Vardanyan was informed that his son was in a hospital. After a full-day searching for his son, he was finally found at “Kanaz” psychiatric establishment, where he had been brought 9 days earlier. The father noticed bruises and injuries around his son’s abdomen and extremities however later after a forensic examination by a physician; he was informed his son had also been hit on the head.

It should be noted that before the video appeared on the internet and became a subject of public discussion, no one contacted the soldier’s family during the two months to officially inform the parents about the incident or the current location of their son. Neither the Military Commissariat, nor the RA Ministry of Defense or the Military Police, or the military unit provided any explanation over the case. Moreover, Vardan Hovhannisyan, who called to ask where his son was, an officer, by the pseudo name “Shalom” from  # 34153 military unit of Askeran said he knew nothing and told Hovhannisyan not to call any more.

It is outrageous that only after dissemination of the video on the internet was Hovhannes Vardanyan’s father summoned by the Military Police for 7 hours and during the interrogation it was mentioned the video should not have been posted on the web, since it was treason to publicly show the post to the enemy.  Today, on September 7, H. Vardanyan’s mother was summoned to the RA Military Police.