Of course, the prosecutor's office and the investigative committee will reveal all the circumstances. But when various combat positions and divisions of the Armed Forces were toured on December 31 of last year, at that time the instruction to the Minister of Defense and the arrangement was as follows: the traditional approach, according to which the problems in the army should be dealt with in a slightly different way, should be stopped. This was announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the beginning of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government—and referring to the tragic incident that happened in a military unit in Gegharkunik Province.
"I gave a clear instruction at that time that there will be no compromises. Even visually, if the [military] service is not in a proper situation, the discipline must be followed by concrete responsibility. In this regard, I made a decision in the morning, I submitted a petition to the Armenian president to dismiss the commander of the Second Army Corps. He has already signed the decision. But, also, I instructed the Minister of Defense that there should be very specific individual consequences," Pashinyan said.
In his turn, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan added that several other high-ranking military officers were also relieved of their positions in connection with the aforesaid incident.
PM Pashinyan continued: "In this case, it’s about official accountability. Who the objects of criminal and other kinds of accountability are, that should be clarified already during the criminal proceedings.
It is clear that the accommodation has served as a military unit since 2020, it is clear that the conditions there are not normal, but that has nothing to do with anything. Any accommodation in which a person is serving must comply with fire [safety] regulations.
There shall be no compromise. Where it doesn't meet the fire [safety] regulations, go and shut it, physically shut it. Let the investor either make proper investments and observe the fire [safety] rules, if not, let those who do trading there go and do trading elsewhere. Otherwise, go ahead with this record! From today, definitely go, shut! This series must be stopped."
Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that at around 1:30am on Thursday, a fire broke out—under still unknown circumstances—in the accommodation of the engineer-sapper troop of the military unit located in the territory of Azat village of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province. According to preliminary data, 15 servicemen have died as a result of this fire, and three others are injured.
