The Administrative Court of Armenia started the proceedings of the case filed by Peace Dialogue NGO against the RA Ministry of Defense.

In February of 2015 the Administrative Court proceeded with a lawsuit filed by Peace Dialogue NGO against the RA Ministry of Defense. The lawsuit requests to obligate the Ministry of Defense to provide official information regarding the fatalities in the RA Armed Forces from 1994-2014 including the full names of the deceased soldiers, the location of the incident, the date, unit number, unit commander’s full name and title, the cause of death and all other unrestricted information.

The Ministry of Defense recently filed objections to Judge K. Zarikyan and Peace Dialogue NGO regarding this lawsuit. An examination of the objections shows that according to the recently signed Executive Order  N9 issued by the RA Minister of Defense and dated July 9, 2015 there is a new and expanded list of information that is considered classified (State Secrets) by the Ministry of Defense. According to Section 17 of the new order (“Information about the functions of the Military Police, as well as about illegalities and incidents”) the information requested by the organization is considered classified information.

Point 42 and 43 of Section 17 of the same executive order state further that:

42. The incidents in the Armed Forces, as well as the information revealing their causes are considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy and given the changes in the political and operative situation of the country;
43. Information revealing the investigation materials regarding the infringements in the Armed Forces is considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy.

According to Peace Dialogue NGO, the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 of N 9 executive order of the RA Minister of Defense and in the “Expanded list of departmental information system of the RA Ministry of Defense, appropriate to classification.” is not included in the list of the encrypted information provided by the RA Law on State and Official Secret, does not fit into the formulations prescribed by law and does not ensure the implementation of the provisions of the law.

The encryption of the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 obviously does not aim at preventing possible arbitrariness of the law and does not guarantee the rights of the persons or the groups of people as it is provided by the RA Law on Fundamentals of Administrative Action and Administrative Proceedings.

The access to the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 cannot impede the interests of national security, public order, crime prevention, public health and morality, constitutional rights and freedoms, and the protection of honor and reputation of the others since, according the RA Constitution, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens can be restricted only by the mentioned reasons.

The classification of the information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and point 43 of the list approved by Executive Order N 9 of the Minister of Defense, contradicts the RA Constitution, the RA Law and the principles of international agreements ratified by Armenia.

Subsequently, the classification of the information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and point 43 of the list approved by Executive Order N 9 of the Minister of Defense, contradicts the RA Constitution, the RA Law and the principles of international agreements ratified by Armenia.

The classification of the mentioned information severely restricts the abilities of the public to exercise oversight over the activities of the RA Ministry of Defense and clearly separates the Ministry of Defense from the policy of transparency of state bodies adopted by Armenia.

Peace Dialogue NGO submitted a complaint to the Administrative court to challenge the legitimacy of the classification of secret information mentioned in Section 17, Section 42 and 43 of the list provided by Executive Order N9 and to partially annul the executive order.

The RA Administrative Court, presided by Judge Arman Dilanyan (Judges Mikayel Melkoumyan, Gevorg Sosyan, Aleksandra Haroutyunyan, Hrach Ayvazyan), acquainted themselves with the complaint filed by Peace Dialogue  and the documents attached and found that there are no grounds for rejecting the complaint or redirecting it to other body as provided by the RA Administrative Procedural Code. Thus, the organization’s complaint was admitted.

The results of the observations carried out by Peace Dialogue NGO regarding the fatalities in the RA and NK armed forces for January-September of 2015.

The observations revealed 45 death cases in the RA and NK armed forces: 14 death cases occurred in the territory of Armenia while the other 31 cases occurred in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Based on the data revealed, 31 soldiers died as a result of ceasefire regime violations (7 cases in the RA territory, 24 cases in the NK territory)

1. Karen Grigoryan
2. Vardan Mkrtchyan

Karen Grigoryan and VardanMkrtchyan died as a result of the same incident on the night of January 2-3, 2015 in the territory of NK.

3. Arman Haroutyunyan (17 January, RA)
4. Suren Pilosyan (20 January, NK)
5. Nahapet Asatryan (21 January, NK)
6. Arman Udumyan (21 January, RA)
7. Karen Galstyan
8. Artak Sargsyan

Karen Galstyan and ArtakSargsyan died as a result of the same incidenton 23 January, 2015 in the territory of RA

9. Shekspir Hakobyan (5 February, NK)
10. Artak Aghekyan
11. Haik Baroyan

ArtakAghekyan and HaikBaroyan died as a result of the same incident on 28 February, 2015 in the territory of NK.

12. Arsen Karapetyan (2 March, NK)
13. Hakob Khachatryan
14. Eduard Hayrapetyan
15. Arshak Haroutyunyan
16. Samvel Hakobyan

HakobKhachatryn, Eduard Hayrapetyan, ArshakZadoyan died as a result of the same incident on 19 March, 2015 in the territory of NK, while SamvelHakobyan died in the hospital on 26 March, 2015 after receiving fatal injuries in the same incident.

17. Unknown
18. Unknown

Times.am and Tert.amreported that 2 contractual soldiers died during the incident that occurred on the night of January 5-6 near the border of NK. However, there is no official report about this. NK Defense Army refused to provide any information to Peace Dialogue NGO.

19. Hovsep Andreasyan (29 March, NK)
20. Levon Mirzoyan (7 April, NK)
21. Haik Keshishoghlyan(7 April, RA)
22. Arman Yepremyan (26 June, RA)
23. Karen Hovhannisyan(12 August, NK)
24. Ivan Babayan(15 August, NK)
25. Haik Tevoyan(3 September, RA)
26. Marat Khachatryan
27. Arman Stepanyan

Marat Khachatryan and ArmanStepanyan died as a result of the same incident on 4 September in the territory of NK.

28. Norayr Khachatryan
29. Robert Mkrtchyan
30. Harout Hakobyan
31. Karen Shahinyan

NorayrKhachatryan, Robert Mkrtchyan, HaroutHakobyan and Karen Shahinyan died as a result of the same incident on 25 September in the territory of NK.

5 soldiers committed suicide

1. Samvel Mirzoyan (6 March, RA)
2. Haroutyun Hambaryan (8 May, NK)

A criminal case was initiated in regards to HoroutyunHambaryan’s murder case. The preliminary investigation revealed that serviceman of the same military unit D. Haroutyunyan violated the rules of statute, tried to underline his dominance by insulted H.Hambaryan and using force against him. Based on the facts revealed, D. Haroutyunyan was charged under Article 359, Part 1 and Article 360, part 1 of the RA Criminal Code.

3. Edgar Melkonyan (11 June, NK)
4. Mavrik Melkonyan (30 June, RA)
5. Narek Haroutyunyan (6 September, RA)

5 murder cases were reported

1. HaykazBarseghyan(29 January, RA)

A criminal case has been initiated in regards to HaykazBarseghyan’s murder case. Officer of the RA MoDVazgenSargsyan military institute, Captain ArtyomAvetisyan was arrested in regards to the case. The criminal case was initiated under Article 375, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code: “Abuse of power, transgression of authority or administrative dereliction, if these acts were committed for mercenary or group-interest motives, by a commander or official, and if these inflicted essential damage.”

4 servicemen of the same military unit VacheSahakyan, MovsesAzaryan, GnelTevosyan and NorikSahakyan were charged under Article 104, Part 2, point 7 and 10 of the RA Criminal Code (murder by a group of people out of hooliganism)

2. Tigran Simonyan (10 February,NK)

Within the framework of the criminal case with regards to the death of TigranSimonyan, soldier of the same unit, senior lieutenant TaronGedeonyan was arrested. He is suspected of breach of combat duty regulations as a result of negligence or bad faith and causing grave consequences.

3. Armen Osipyan (14 February,NK)
4. Albert Safaryan (27 February, NK)

The preliminary hypothesis of Albert Safaryan’s suicide was refutedThis information was provided by the deceased soldier’s father Emil Safaryan in an interview to NEWS.am.“The investigator of the case told me that the suicide hypothesis was refuted and that it was in fact a murder, however he did not tell further details. In a few days I will meet the investigator to get acquainted with the materials of the case,” said Mr. Safaryan and mentioned that the preliminary investigation of the case is underway.

5. Ashot Hovhannisyan (18 August, RA)

1 soldier died in unknown circumstances

1. Haik Margaryan (22 March, NK)

2 soldiers died as a result of accidents

1. Arthur Arakelyan (9 April, ԼՂ)
2. Artyom Tovmasyan (17 April, RA)

• Arthur Vardevanyan(17 January, NK)
• Sasun Ziroyan(5 July, NK)
• Marat Tadevosyan(5 July, NK)
• Arsen Hunanyan(5 July, ՀՀ)
• Taron Sedrakyan(5 September, RA)
• Grigor Sahakyan(5 September, RA)
• Gevorg Vardanyan(5 September, RA)
• Sevak Gasparyan(11 September, RA)
• Suren Davtyan (21 September, RA)

Peace Dialogue NGO does not have information whether the death cases of Arthur Vardevanyan, SasunZiroyan, Marat Tadevosyan, ArsenHunanyan, TaronSedrakyan, GrigorSahakyan, SevakGasparyan, GevorgVardanyan and Suren Davtyan are connected with their military service or whether they were on service at that time.

1 soldier died as a result of health issues

1. Khder Saroyan(29 May, RA)

In February of 2015 the RA Administrative Court proceeded with a lawsuit filed by Peace Dialogue NGO against the RA Ministry of Defense. The lawsuit would require the Ministry of Defense to provide official information regarding the fatalities in the RA Armed Forces from 1994-2014 including the full names of all the deceased soldiers, the location of the incident, the date, unit number, unit commander’s full name and title, the cause of death and a brief description of the cases.

The Ministry of Defense recently filed objections to Judge K. Zarikyan and Peace Dialogue NGO regarding this lawsuit. An examination of the objections shows that according to the recently signed Executive Order  N9 issued by the RA Minister of Defense and dated July 9, 2015 there is a new and expanded list of information that is considered classified (State Secrets) by the Ministry of Defense. According to Section 17 of the new order (“Information about the functions of the Military Police, as well as about illegalities and incidents”) the information requested by the organization is considered classified information.

Point 42 and 43 of Section 17 of the same executive order state further that:

42.  The incidents in the Armed Forces, as well as the information revealing their causes are considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy and given the changes in the political and operative situation of the country;
43.  Information revealing the investigation materials regarding the infringements in the Armed Forces is considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy.

It should be noted that the RA Ministry of Defense has of this date not provided the organization with copies of all necessary documentation, which the organization requested in August 2015 that provides the basis for Executive Order N9.

Comparing the new list of classified information to the provisions of the following laws:

• The RA Constitution,
• The Administrative Procedure Code,
• The RA Law on State and Official Secret,
• The RA Law on Legal Acts,
• The RA Law on Fundamentals of Administrative Action and Administrative Proceedings

We find that 

• The information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 of N 9 executive order of the RA Minister of Defense is not included in the list of the encrypted information provided by the RA Law on State and Official Secret, does not fit into the formulations prescribed by law and does not ensure the implementation of the provisions of the law.

• The encryption of the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 obviously does not aim at preventing possible arbitrariness of the law and does not guarantee the rights of the persons or the groups of people as it is provided by the RA Law on Fundamentals of Administrative Action and Administrative Proceedings.

• The access to the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 cannot impede the interests of national security, public order, crime prevention, public health and morality, constitutional rights and freedoms, and the protection of honor and reputation of the others since, according the RA Constitution, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens can be restricted only by the mentioned reasons. 

We announce that 

• The classification of the information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and point 43 of the list approved by Executive Order N 9 of the Minister of Defense, contradicts the RA Constitution, the RA Law and the principles of international agreements ratified by Armenia.

• Declaring that this material is classified severely restricts the abilities of the public to exercise oversight over the activities of the RA Ministry of Defense and clearly separates the Ministry of Defense from the policy of transparency of state bodies adopted by Armenia.

• Peace Dialogue NGO will challenge in court the legitimacy of the classification of secret the information mentioned in Section 17, Section 43 and 43 of the list provided by Executive Order N9 of the Minister of Defense and will submit a request to annul the provisions of the order and the list.

Therefore, we call upon all Armenian Human Rights organizations, media representatives, and civil groups not to stay indifferent and to do everything possible in order not to lose this opportunity to exercise civilian control over the Armed Forces in Armenia.

More in-depth study of the other points in Executive Order N 9 of the RA Minister of Defense by the civil society, as well as the actions taken to dispute their relevance in law will be an invaluable contribution to us and all of our society.  Peace Dialogue NGO has limited resources and is challenging the legitimacy of the classified information in Point 42 and Point 43 of Executive Order N9 only. We are concerned that there are a number of other areas of concern to a free and open society in the decree which present nefarious opportunities for additional arbitrary and capricious actions of the officials of the Ministry of Defense that may not comply with the law.

 Peace Dialogue NGO

Armenia’s Defense Minister has issued a new executive order that prevents access by the relatives of deceased soldiers and civil society actors to information concerning the non-combat fatal incidents in the military forces.

What does the government want the parents of soldiers who have died in non-combat incidents to know, and what not, and why?  What is their intention? The Armenian NGO Peace Dialogue for the past four years has been working with parents and other relatives of soldiers who have died in non-combat situations to find out exactly why and how their sons died while in the service of their country. Many parents have approached Peace Dialogue looking for help. In response to their pleas for help, the organization set up the “Safe Soldiers for a Safe Armenia”  website (www.safesoldiers.am). The website was set up to receive information from the families of solders who had died, and only after getting clarifications from the Military officials, to share this information with the public. Initially, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) assisted the NGO in providing this information. Since 2014 they have not responded to Peace Dialogue’s requests for information, which led the organization to go to court to see if the judicial system would force the MoD to provide this most important information. In January 2015 a lawsuit requesting the information was initiated. Then things changed.

Under Armenian law, the Minister of Defense has 30 days in which to respond to a lawsuit, but they  replied only on August 15, 2015, eight months later. Peace Dialogue received an official copy of the objection made by the Ministry of Defense to the Administrative Court of Armenia regarding the above mentioned lawsuit. The objection states that effective August 13, 2015 all information concerning the non-combat deaths of soldiers is classified according to a new Executive order. What is the intention of such an order? Is it to never allow grieving parents to understand exactly what happened to their children while in service to their country? Are all of these deaths of such a nature that telling the parents and the community about them would endanger the security of Armenia?  Perhaps some, but certainly not all.

According to the same executive order, point 17: “Information about the functions of the Military Police, as well as about illegalities and incidents from now on”, the incidents in the Armed Forces, as well as the information revealing their causes are considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy and given the changes in the political and operative situation of the country; information revealing the investigation materials regarding the infringements in the Armed Forces is considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy.

According to Peace Dialogue this order severely limits how civil society actors are able to maintain civilian control over the activities of the Military Forces. Even financial reports of the Ministry now get classified according to the Minister’s executive order. It appears that the intent of this new order is to move away from the announced policy of “increasing transparency” of the Armenian Military Forces. The organization intends to launch another legal action, aimed at challenging this new executive order of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

Source: Peace Dialogue, Armenia.

(The Dutch NGO ‘PAX’ supports the project “Safe Soldiers for a Safe Armenia”).

Photo: Nana Muradyan, whose son, private Valerik Muradyan, was found hanged in his military unit from an iron pole on March 15th of 2010. Although the preliminary investigation body considered proven the fact that Valerik Muradyan was pushed to commit suicide there are still no suspects in this case, nor was anyone detained. (Picture courtesy of Armine Zakaryan, Peace Dialogue.)

The article above was published in Commonspace.eu and presents a significant change in policy by the Armenian government.

As we have previously informed you, The RA Administrative Court was proceeding with two administrative lawsuits filed by Peace Dialogue NGO.

With the first case the organization filed a lawsuit which will obligate the Ministry of Defence to provide official information regarding the fatalities in the RA Armed Forces from 1994-2014 including the full names of the deceased soldiers, the location of the incident, the date, unit number, unit commander’s full name and title, the cause of death and all other unrestricted information, while the other lawsuit calls for administrative penalties against Minister Seyran Ohanyan of the Ministry of Defence for not providing the mentioned information as stated by law.

The preliminary hearing of the second case was held on July 30, 2015. A representative of the Minister of Defence was present. The judge introduced the basis and the subject of the case.  Then Minister Seyran Ohanyan’s representative filed a motion to suspend the administrative proceedings on the grounds that the mentioned administrative case was linked to the other case filed by the organisation and that the facts in that case cannot be examined until a decision was made regarding the first case. Judge Arman Dilanyan accepted the motion and the proceedings of the administrative case over the administrative penalties against Minister Ohanyan were suspended.