Senior officer arrested in private’s death in Artsakh

Panorama, Armenia

A senior officer has been arrested in the death of a 19-year-old private of the Artsakh Defense Army, authorities said.

The soldier, identified as Volodya Galoyan, was found dead near a military post in the country’s south on Tuesday night.

In a statement on Wednesday, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said the soldier tried to kill his senior officer of the military post with an AK-74 assault rifle attached to him on Monday, but failed to finish the crime due to unpredicted circumstances.

Immediately after opening fire Galoyan fled the scene, after which his body was found at around 50 meters away from the military post with a gunshot wound in the jaw and his rifle next to him on Wednesday, at 4:20am.

A criminal case has been launched into "causing somebody to commit suicide or to make a suicide attempt by indirect willfulness or by negligence, by means of threat, cruel treatment or regular humiliation of one’s dignity."

Preliminary investigation is underway.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS