The Words of the Deputy Minister are a Self-confession Testimony: Human Rightrs Activist

‘I am not from Vanadzor, I am from Karabakh,’ Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, said to Epress.am, commenting on the joint TV program of the Public Television and MoD.

In the report the reporter repeats “the guy from Vanadzor” a few times, and argues that the organizations that are speaking up against the incidents in the army are getting funding from abroad. The same is stated by the RA Deputy Minister of Defense, Vladimir Gasparyan.

In his conversation with the news agency Sakunts first of all stated that he never watches H1(Armenian 1st Public Television) but he watched the re-run of the program after he heard about the video material.  

‘First of all, they should know that I am not from Vanadzor, I am from Karabakh,’ laughs Sakunts. ‘And secondly, Vova Gasparyan, himself, has serious problems in the legal dimension he mentioned, and I would recommend him to work quietly towards the issues that our office has pointed out: this refers to the morals, and the current situation in the army, that were reported several times. He is directly responsible for them,’ said Sakunts.

He said that all this negativity is directed not only towards him but also towards “the Army in Reality” Initiative.

‘Vova Gasparyan has no idea what civic monitoring is: And what he is saying against us would be qualified as a witch hunt a few centuries ago. He is probably unaware that this idea is cliché and useless,’ said the activist.

The interviewee said that if during the program, Vova Gasparyan publicly states that ‘those, who consider the army officials and officers weak, are wimps,’ one can imagine how he can talk to or treat the servicemen and subordinates in the army.

Those who say things about the officer personnel being weak are people who serve in the military, the officers, which means they say it from the inside. Calling them wimps is a confessional testimony from Vova Gasaryan, who demonstrates how he possibly treats servicemen under his subordination,’ added Sakunts.   

Source: www.epress.am