Desperate parents still seek for justice
Last day of June saw another failed attempt of Armenian mothers to achieve a justice and soothe the soul of their deceased sons.
A group of parents, who have been holding protests for years demanding fair investigation into their sons' deaths gathered once again near the Presidential Palace on June 30.
Hopeless parents of Armenian soldiers, who were passed away or killed in non-combat conditions, made another attempt to catch up the attention of the Sargsyan regime and demand justice.
The protest participants wished to be informed as to why their addresses to the president are left unanswered by the Presidential Palace, but, in vain.
The protest in Yerevan was dispersed by police officers. The guardians of law and order once again did not let the protesters to approach the gates of the Presidential Residence. The police pushed back the parents and dispersed the rally.
The mothers expressed dissatisfaction with police arbitrariness. They, as Gohar Sargsyan claimed, simply wanted to walk by the presidential office. "I am a citizen who wants to walk on the sidewalk. Am I deprived of this right because I am a mother in mourning clothes? "- said Gohar Sargsyan, the mother of soldier Tigran Ohanjanyan who died in 2007.
Even the Ombudsman Office failed to reach out to the Palace to help the parents. Members of the Ombudsman office’s quick response team led by Rafael Poghosyan arrived on the scene after Gohar Sargsyan phoned the office. The representatives of the Ombudsman’s office asked for clarifications from the police coordinator for dispersal of the rally, but it didn’t help.
"Maybe they did it due to birthday of Serzh [Sargsyan]," suggested Irina Ghazaryan, mother of the deceased Arthur Ghazaryan, mentioning that the president, who was marking his birthday on June 30, seems unwilling to spoil his day.
The parents stressed that they have held multiple protests in front of the Presidential Palace before. But, every time the Palace was deaf.
Meanwhile indiscipline and arbitrariness take deeper roots in the Armenian army and unmilitary losses increase. A number of facts of death and injury as a result of “violation of weapon usage rules” were recorded in the Armenian army in 2015, while the number of suicide attempts and suicides is also on rise.
Human rights groups contend that most army suicides are in reality homicides, and that army officers often tamper with evidence and cover up these crimes.