Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

HCA Vanadzor hereby presents data regarding servicemen’s death cases recorded in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, and Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh in January-September 2022, collected from information disseminated on mass media and official sources, as well as responses to the information inquiries addressed by HCAV to official organizations (RA Ministry of Defense, RA Prosecutor General’s Office, RA Investigative Committee).

According to the information summed up by HCA Vanadzor, 51 servicemen’s death cases were recorded in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, and Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh during January-September 2022. This number does not include servicemen’s death cases recorded during September 13-15, which were caused by  the large-scale attack of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia.

Addressing the border situation in January-September 2022, we can record that after the 44-day war, the situation especially worsened on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, leading to more than 200 killed servicemen, and more than 300 casualties. 

On September 13-15, 2022, as a result of Azerbaijani aggression, more than 210 persons were killed or went missing according to the official data published on October 14.  

In her conversation with mass media on October 20, the Minister of Health informed that 201 bodies had been identified. 5 servicewomen were among those killed. 293 servicemen and 8 civilians were wounded. 29 servicemen were still missing աccording to the information published by the RA Prime Minister on October 19. 

It should be mentioned that the Organization learnt from another official source about the death of a serviceman of the RA NSS border guard troops. This case is not calculated in the total number of death cases, as the Organization previously did not keep statistics of the number of death cases of the RA NSS Border Guard Service troops’ servicemen.

Below we present the causes of 51 death cases:

• 15 were caused by ceasefire violation,

• 12 were caused by car crash,

• 12 were caused by health problems,

• 6 were caused by suicide or inciting suicide,

• 3 were caused by murder (1 was caused by breach of the rules of using weapon, 1 was caused by breach of the rules of combat service, 1 was caused by murder by another person not related to military service),

• 2 were caused by accidents (1 was caused by electrocution, 1 was caused by drowning),

• 1 was caused by breach of the rules for handling weapon, ammunition/ burn as a result of fire.

   

During January-September 2021, 51 servicemen’s death cases were recorded in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, and Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, of which 

• 12 were caused by car crash,

• 10 were caused by ceasefire violation,

• 9 were caused by health problems,

• 8 were caused by suicide,

• 7 were caused by murder (1 was caused by breach of the rules for using weapon, 1 was caused by breach of the rules for organizing combat service, 3 were caused by murder of two or more persons),

• 5 were caused by accident (1 was caused by an avalanche, 1 was caused by a lightning strike, 1 was caused by a tree fall, 1 was caused by a hit of a car part when repairing the car, 1 was caused by sudden death).

29% of death cases recorded in 2022 were caused in combat conditions as a result of violations of the ceasefire regime, while 71% were recorded in non-combat conditions, in particular, 24% occurred as a result of car crash, 24% occurred as a result of health problems, 11% occurred as a result of suicide, 6% occurred as a result of accidents, 6% occurred as a result of murder. 

The full report is available HERE  (in Armenian)