Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: From the very beginning, [PM] Nikol Pashinyan and [defense minister] Suren Papikyan tried to put the blame for the [fatal] fire in the accommodation of the engineer-sapper troop of the RA MOD [(Ministry of Defense)] N military unit located in the territory of Azat village on the soldiers, that they violated the [fire] safety rules, they used automotive gasoline to light the stove, then the officer threw the 5-liter burning container into the accommodation.

However, hours later, the platoon commander denied, saying that he had been in the accommodation hours before the incident, there was no gasoline there, and the stove was always lit with paper. The commander also expressed his bewilderment regarding the theory circulated by Pashinyan, saying that he has his own theory, but does not consider it appropriate to speak.

We were informed that as a result of the September war, the [actual] accommodation of the engineer-sapper troop was out of order, and the 40 square-meter building, where the incident took place, was rented from one of the residents of the village.

On the day of the incident, there were 21 servicemen in the accommodation, 3 of them were outside on duty at the time of the fire.