14:10, 21 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan said that the general prosecution has already outlined the work on identifying the reasons of suicides in the country. She described the more than 60% growth in suicides to be “concerning”.

Vardapetyan made the remarks during a parliamentary committee session on the annual report of the prosecution.

“We are really concerned over the growth in suicides. We’ve outlined the works for identifying the reasons. Although this isn’t the prosecution’s function, we’ve regularly made notifications through motions regarding identified reasons as part of specific proceedings concerning both civilians and military servicemembers, but now we will inform the relevant bodies more intensively, for example the defense ministry and others,” Vardapetyan told lawmakers at the Parliamentary Committee on State and Legal Affairs.

She said the reasons behind suicide in the country vary, ranging from certain manifestations of depression up to individual or social phenomena, as well as gambling-related occurrences, which impact the person’s mental state.

“There is a need for serious psychological work here, but not individually, rather institutionally, for example serious work should be done in educational programs in order to have a stress-tolerant society, because we live in an information noise, and sometimes this noise flows into very unprepared minds. We will present concrete recommendations during the next session to address the problem on the state level,” Vardapetyan said.