YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The Armenian military said on Thursday that it has formally dismissed two mid-level army officers who were recently charged with extorting money from their subordinates, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reported Thursday.
Military investigators say Artur Karapetian, the deputy commander of an army regiment stationed in the southern Ararat province, illegally collected 1 million drams ($2800) ostensibly for buying a computer for his commander.
The other officer, Vartan Martirosian, who commanded a battalion in the same unit, stands accused of forcing soldiers serving there on a contractual basis to borrow loans from commercial banks and give them to him.
Both men were arrested in mid-October only to be released on bail by a local court two weeks later. Armenia’s Court of Appeals on Friday rejected military prosecutors’ appeal against their release. The prosecutors plan to challenge the decision at the higher Court of Cassation.
A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry was quoted by RFE/RL as saying that the two officers have been formally relieved of their military duties and will be discharged from the armed forces altogether if they are convicted at their upcoming trial.
For its part, the ministry’s Investigative Service revealed that a third officer serving in Ararat, Arsen Nersisian, was also charged in connection with the extortion case last month. Nersisian was not put under pre-trial arrest.
The sackings are the latest in a series of punitive measures taken by the Defense Ministry against several dozen army servicemen following a recent spate of non-combat deaths and other violent incidents in the army ranks. The military and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian in particular have been under public pressure to tackle chronic army abuse in earnest.
More than a dozen officers and soldiers were arrested in August on charges of ill-treating two other servicemen found dead in still unclear circumstances. Two other officers were arrested recently for beating and humiliating conscripts. One of them is the deputy commander of an army unit deployed near Yerevan.
Everybody in the armenian army must be like a band of brothers.
AMEN to that brother !! we must always stick together against these filthy turks and azeris
Thank you , Totally Agree with you
Army should not get engaged in home politic. This was the biggest mistake of Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 96 . Unfortunately, the same mistake was repeated by Robert Kocharian and Levon Ter-Petrosyan this time jointly!
If they are any sign that fascist Azerbaijani authorities are gaping to use the territory of Nakhichevan to carry out any kind of sabotage, terror act or kidnapping, Armenian Army should react and bomb Nakhichevan. Failing to response to the terrorist actions of Baku, would send the wrong massage to enemies of Armenian people!
finally the military seems to be taking the corruption seriously. a
I am glad to see this.
We really need to eliminate the counterproductive habits we picked up in the Red Army. The Armenian Army, the best in the Caucasus, will only improve as we treat our conscripts like the solders and not ATM machines.
John H Kassabian