An Armenian conscript died September 2 from beatings he received at the hands of his battalion commander.

Aram Mkrtchyan was 18, from Verin (Upper) Getashen village, Gegharkunik Province and had been in the army for three months.

Mkrtchyan served under Captain Andok Galstyan, 26, at a military post in Vayk in southern Armenian province of Vayots Dzor. Galstyan has been placed under arrest, charged with misfeasance and dereliction of duty – charges that could lead to 3-8 years imprisonment.

According to accounts of fellow soldiers and relatives, Galstyan attacked Mkrtchyan while the conscript was still in his bunk, between 6-7 a.m. on August 28. So far, no one has said what might have sparked the attack.

Mkrtchyan reported for morning drills, holding his ribs in pain say other soldiers. When he was in too much pain to perform stretching exercises, his comrades say the captain attacked Mkrtchyan, threw him on the ground, sat on him and beat him in the head for several minutes.

Galstyan then sent the platoon on a run, while he remained behind alone with Mkrtchyan.

No one except Galstyan knows what happened during that time, but forensics show that Mkrtchyan had multiple wounds over much of his body.

At about 11:30 a.m., Mkrtchyan was taken to an aid station.

“The doctor says that Aram was screaming and crying out in pain saying ‘Shoot me and leave me alone,’ and then he lost consciousness,” Norayr Norikyan, his cousin, told Armenianow.

It was not until 4:30 p.m. – some four hours after losing consciousness – that Mkrtchyan was taken by ambulance to hospital in Yerevan – a drive of about three hours.

He underwent surgery, but according to Colonel Mikael Mikaelyan, head of Central Clinic Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense, “the brain trauma and hemorrhage was very heavy and not compatible with life.”

“After being beaten he was left without aid, in a careless condition for about four hours; and experts say that it would be possible to save his life if he were taken to the hospital in time,” says the victim’s cousin, insisting that the officer corps on duty that day should also bear the responsibility for negligence.

“I asked the regiment officer of the day, as well as the head of the regiment where they were, did not they hear noises of a fight, quarrel from the other room, which was about 30 meters away, and they answered that no, they did not,” Norikyan says.

Mkrtchyan died in hospital five days later without gaining consciousness.

In its grief, the teenager’s family is also angry that the charges brought against Galstyan have relatively minor consequence.

“This cannot be considered to be a misfeasance; it is an attempt of murder accompanied with beating with special cruelty, and it is a different article envisaging different measures of punishment,” says Norikyan.

The Armenian army is notorious for soldiers being mistreated, and deaths from beatings among conscripts – sometimes ordered by commanders – have not been uncommon.

But a key organization supporting soldiers’ rights says the severity of Mkrtchyan’s death is unprecedented.

“This is a terrible case in its character,” says Greta Mirzoyan, head of ‘Zinvori Mayr’ (‘Soldier’s Mother’) Non Governmental Organization. “There were cases of murders in our army, fights among soldiers, but a case of a commander severely beating a soldier is unprecedented.” (In 2007 conscript Gegham Segoyan was shot dead by his commander. Mirzoyan refers to the severe beating as being “unprecedented”.)

According to Mirzoyan, this is the first murder in the Armenian army during 2009. There is another case of death, however due to an illness.

“We are all in shock, because the commanders of the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute (from which Galstyan graduated) are mainly well-educated and balanced officers. We know him (Galstyan), he has a good family, he has a four-year-old child, his wife is currently pregnant,” Mirzoyan told ArmeniaNow. “I cannot imagine in what a psychological state the commander was at that moment to commit such a crime, but he must be punished according to the whole strictness of the law.”