According to the decision of the RA Government, annual financial aid for the families that lost their sons in the army in time of peace makes only 9100 drams (~25$).

Families that lost their sons during their service in the army are given after their death 700,000 drams (~1900$) for funeral and 1,400,000 drams (~3800$) for arranging the grave, making and installing the gravestone. After that parents get from the state only 9,100 drams (if there are more than 5 people in the family, the allowance equals 3000 drams for each member). It is the only aid if the family does not get any old age or disability pension or do not start knocking different doors demanding to respect the letter of the law.

There are decisions of which parents of deceased soldiers are not even aware. For example, according to the decision N778 of the RA Government of November 27, 2000 and the order N225 of the RA Ministry of Defense of March 04, 2008, once a year families can get social assistance of up to 100,000 drams (~275$). However, families either do not get that sum or get only if they specially apply for it and the sum mainly does not exceed 10,000  drams(~27$).

According to the RA legislation, parents are exempted from 50% of land tax, though this law works not always.

"At first the head of the village told me that I was exempted from irrigation water and land taxes but after several years I was told that I had big debts. The debt was covered only after applying to the Ministry of Defense and passing through much trouble. However, after that the payment was not halved, and I continue paying 9000 drams (~24$) of land tax for 1500 square meters of land," says Anahit Avetisyan from Baghramyan village (Echmiadzin region) who is the mother of Araik Avetisyan who died 9 years ago by official version due to negligence and in the mother's opinion for not taking 100 dollars to the military unit. (Avetisyan has passed all judicial instances in Armenia and on January 10 applied to the European Court since she is convinced that her son was killed.) 

She is said to be lucky to have a job at the Scientific Center for Agriculture and Plant Protection and get 30,000 (~82$) drams salary. Her husband's income together with the disability pension makes 57,000 (~157$) drams.

Another parent - Robert Mirzoyan, whose son died in army 4 years ago, is also convinced that the law does not socially provide for parents. Mirzoyan who used to be a criminal intelligence officer now keeps his family with 71,000 dram pension (~195$). 

"And my wife gets another 60,000 dram (~165$) salary for teaching. Or else how could we live with that 9100 dram allowance? I gave my only son with university education to the army and I am sure that today he would have some high ranking position, and they give us that miserable sum."

Mirzoyan also has some heart disease for which he gets additional 20,000 drams (~55$).

But if members of these two families have jobs, the same cannot be said about other families, e.g., the Ohanjanyan family. The father of the family lived in Russia and was earning 5-6 thousand dollars but learning about his son's death sold everything and returned to Armenia, as he says, to find his son's murderer. Now neither he, nor his wife has a job. 

"The money I brought from Russia finished and now we do not work... only 20,000 dram disability pension and this 9100 drams. We have applied to the Prime Minister and other officials many times. The Prime Minister said that he couldn't accept people of our age, and in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, when we asked for some job with 60,000 dram salary, they told us that we want a salary equal to that of the minister," Ohanjanyan says.

Only once the Ohanjanyans got some assistance when the Ministry of Defense agreed (after their application) to pay tuition fees for their second son's education at the European Academy in Armenia.

"We were healthy and well-to-do people and lost everything after that accident. We got some health problems and it continues because we cannot prove till now that our son was not electrocuted in the army at the location where, according to the expertise, there was no electric current, but was killed in conspiracy," parents say. 

Artur Sakunts, Head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office, says that this law does not work, and parents of servicemen are socially completely unprotected.

"I know some cases when the parents were given only 600 dollars for funeral," Sakunts says.  

He adds that in Vanadzor the cemetery for the military is in a terrible state, and no one addresses its concerns.

"Others clauses of the law do not work either since there is no distinctly defined regulation on the compensation that is paid to the families of servicemen who were killed or died in the army in time of peace. So it turns out that law works only for families of servicemen who died in hostilities," Sakunts clarifies.

According to the non-official data published by the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office, 44 people died in the army this year. Some 100-170 people died annually in 1998-2005. In the recent years, the number of victims does not exceed 100.

Karine Ionesyan

Source - www.hra.am