Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On June 4, 2024,  the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment on another one of the HCAV cases, "Varyan v. Armenia". The ECHR recorded the fact of violation of T. Varian's right to life. According to the judgment, Armenia has violated the substantive and procedural limbs of Article 2 of the Convention and undertakes to pay 30,000 euros to Varyan's representative. 

It should be noted that in 2011, Tigran Varian joined the compulsory  military service. On February 29, 2012, Tigran was found dead from a gunshot injury. On February 13 of the same year, the unit commander, disregarding the fact that T. Varyan had been conscripted for  non‑combatant military service, included T. Varyan in the artillery battery personnel. During combat duty, Varian fell asleep at the observation post. The fact of sleeping in the post became known to the personnel and junior sergeant E. S., who verbally abused Varyan, made obscene remarks to him, and senior lieutenant H.H. even kicked Varyan in the head. At the same time, Varian went to the toilet, where he dirtied the latrine because of the darkness, because of which he was harassed by junior sergeant E.S. At the behest of the latter, H.H. instructed Varyan to dig a hole for a latrine in a separate place as a punishment, and junior sergeant E.S. sworn at  Varyan for not cleaning the observation post area well, punched him in the chest and forced him to clean again. On February 28, 2012, around 16:00 H. H left combat duty and returned only around 21:00. On February 29, Varian's body was found. 

Exhausting the opportunities to achieve justice in the domestic courts, the HCAV, entrusted the lawyer of the office Ani Chatinyan, and the president of the organization A. Sakunts, to apply to the ECHR.

According to Chatinyan, this case is another proof that the state does not protect the rights of the persons under its jurisdiction, in this case the right to life. Within the protection of the right to life, the state has two important obligations: the first is to refrain directly from violating the right to life, and the second, if there is a violation of the right, then to conduct an active and effective investigation, identify the guilty and assign an adequate punishment and compensation, which did not happen in Tigran's case, as a result of which we have the judgment of the ECHR published today. 

The judgment of the ECHR is HERE

The activities of the HCAV in the Varyan case:

https://archive.hcav.am/1/ 

https://archive.hcav.am/2/