The “Zhoghovurd” daily writes: “When talking about suicides in the army, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan states that the problem is systemic, and when the “Zhoghovurd” daily demands only official statistics from the Ministry of Defense: how many suicide attempts and how many suicide cases were recorded from January 1 to August 13, 2026, the ministry replies that the minister answered this question in the National Assembly on August 24.
This is, to put it mildly, a strange answer.
In a conversation with journalists on August 24, Papikyan, referring to the deaths recorded in the army recently, stated that there have always been cases of suicide, murder, and extra-statutory relations throughout the history of the Armenian army. He also said that some of the cases are a consequence of extra-statutory relations, while others are a consequence of a criminal subculture, and emphasized that the problem is systemic.
Furthermore, the minister presented statistical data at the same briefing, noting that in 2025, according to him, the number of relevant cases had reached a minimum of two.
That is, the ministry not only knows about the problem, but also has statistics.
In that case, the question arises: what is secret in the two specific numbers for the period from January 1 to August 13, 2026?
The daily "Zhoghovurd" did not request details of criminal proceedings, names of servicemen, personal data, or information containing investigative secrets from the Ministry of Defense. The question was simple: how many suicide attempts and how many suicide cases were recorded?
This is especially incomprehensible against the background that on August 26, the first session of the interdepartmental working group established by the Prime Minister's decision was held at the Ministry of Defense, the agenda of which was the causes and contributing conditions of suicides, murders, and non-statutory relations in the armed forces.
What is secret here
If the problem of suicides, as Papikyan says, is a systemic challenge, then society has the right to know at least its dry statistics.
First, the Investigative Committee, now the Ministry of Defense
Let us recall that the Zhoghovurd daily also applied to the Investigative Committee with the same issue. They did not provide us with the required figures from there either.
But responsibility to society does not end with sending a serviceman to the army.
The state's responsibility is to ensure that the serviceman returns to his family safe and sound. And if the problem of suicides and deaths in the army is systemic, then society has the right to know the scale of the problem, why it is happening, and what the state is doing to combat it.
Papikyan stated, “I am responsible for eradicating it.”
So the question remains: how is the state going to eradicate a phenomenon whose true extent the same state refuses to present in numbers?
According to publicly available sources, the Zhoghovurd daily summarized the following data:
January 14 – Vahan Petrosyan, 18 years old, was found with a gunshot wound in the Vardenis military unit. Later, the Criminal Investigation Department initiated proceedings under the article of inducing suicide by negligence and arrested the fellow serviceman. In other words, this is no longer just a “suicide hypothesis”; the investigation has moved to the plane of inducing suicide. February 7 – Davit Manukyan, 22 years old, a contract soldier of the Ministry of Defense, his body was found in the N military unit. According to published data, the main version of the investigators was suicide. April 14 – Narek Arshak Hakobyan, 19 years old, a conscript soldier died of a gunshot wound on the way to the “Muratsan” military hospital from the Nubarashen firing range. The Criminal Investigation Department initiated proceedings under the article of inducing a soldier to suicide. June 2 – Aramayis Gevorgyan, a conscript soldier, his body was found in the Kapan military unit. The official version is suicide, and the Criminal Investigation Department has initiated proceedings under the article of negligently causing a soldier to commit suicide. At the same time, his father publicly stated that he does not believe in the suicide version. July 21 – Narek Torosyan, 20 years old, a conscript soldier was found dead in the Chambarak military unit. The Criminal Investigation Department later initiated criminal proceedings against two fellow soldiers on charges of negligently causing a soldier to commit suicide. On August 12, a soldier attempted suicide in one of the military units of the Ministry of Defense, but his life was saved. ArmLur wrote about this, citing its sources. On August 13, the body of conscript soldier Grigor Edgar Zakaryan was found in the N military unit of the Ministry of Defense with a gunshot wound. The Ministry of Defense officially confirmed the death,and the press presented the case as a preliminary version of suicide.
But the listed cases are not official complete information. Maybe there are cases that have not received public attention, and therefore have not been published, but the Ministry of Defense should certainly have recorded and maintained these statistics.”
More details in today's issue of the newspaper
