YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan has debunked media allegations that claim the military has concealed deaths of servicemen.

Hovhannisyan issued a detailed clarification through his Facebook account.

“The Armenian Armed Forces has not concealed and will not conceal any loss case, all attempts to [falsely] present these incidents as concealed are fake. Moreover now the Ministry of Defense is open for cooperation and will always be transparent within its authority.

The death of M. Grigoryan took place on February 11, one day later the news was reported in the press by relevant bodies. The death of F. Tamazyan took place on February 12 and the news was reported on the same day in the press by relevant bodies.

Incident not related to service, which usually happen at home or outside the military base, we never officially report and have not reported in the past 7 years, however we always issue a confirmation if the news appears in the press, and it usually appears very quickly. If it doesn’t, the investigative bodies have reported and continue reporting about it some time later.

We have already clarified about Ed. Grigoryan that a certain mistake took place, however this isn’t a pattern as you can see from the abovementioned examples.

Therefore, the rumors on the concealment of incidents by the Defense Ministry are completely unsubstantiated and I request you to refrain from manipulating the death news of servicemen when clarifying your personal or political issues,” Hovhannisyan wrote on Facebook.

Earlier Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan also refuted the allegations on concealing fatalities in the military.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan