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• Armenian Conscript Shoots Officers and Himself in NKR: Six believed to be dead at Martuni base

The defence minister had "enough" of these senseless killings, and as such, new "guidelines" or "laws" are finally introduced that explicitely allows a PFC or a junior officer to disobey an order of superior if that order is abusive in nature. Some of my compatriots accused me of encouraging young Armenians to avoid the draft...and I really did. But, at the end of the day, the army brass, just li...

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According to unofficial information, conscript Karo Ayvazyan shot four officers, a fellow-conscript and then himself in an apparent attempt to defend his comrade from the officers’ punishment.

Human rights activist Arthur Sakunts told ArmeniaNow that late on Thursday (July 29), officers at the outpost found 20-year old Andranik Sargsyan asleep on his watch and awoke him with insults and humiliation. Ayvazyan, who was serving the same watch, then shot the officers before shooting himself. Sargsyan also died in the shooting, but it is unknown whether his death was intentional or the result of random firing.

The Press Department of the MOD refused ArmeniaNow’s request for information, stating that nothing is clear yet. The official website of the ministry reports that on Thursday evening an “incident” involving “use of firearms” and resulting in an unspecified number of casualties took place at one of military bases. It also says that military investigators have received the “strictest orders” to clarify all circumstances of the incident (http://www.mil.am).

In addition to Sargsyan and Ayvazyan, the dead are: Vardges Tadevosyan (Yerevan); Garegin Hovsepyan (Echmiadzin), Robert Hovhannisyan (Vanadzor), Artyom Manasyan (Charentsavan).

The incident comes a day after another officer died in non-combat circumstance in an unrelated case in Tavush, Armenia. According to the MOD, 31-year-old lieutenant Artak Nazaryan used an automatic weapon to commit suicide at his base. Nazaryan’s parents, however, have challenged the official cause of death, reporting that forensics revealed that Nazaryan had been beaten prior to his death.