Human rights activist raises alarm over Armenia's non-combat casualties

Nazeli Movsisyan, human rights activist and coordinator of the civil control department of the defence and security sector of the Office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, has raised the alarm over Armenia’s military losses in non-combat conditions.

"The statistics of non-combat deaths in the Armenian Armed Forces for 2012-2017 and 2018-2023 is worrying," Movsisyan said during a public discussion on “The state of human rights in the armed forces," Caliber.Az reports.

"According to our research, the number of deaths from 2012-2017 amounted to 418. Of course, this does not include the deaths of servicemen as a result of the four-day war. According to our data, that's another 77 people.

The total number of non-combat deaths represents 66 per cent of military deaths, 279 cases, which is quite alarming. The number of cases classified as suicides is 58, homicides 44.

The statistics for 2018-2023 are similar, as the number of military fatalities not in combat was also high: 81 per cent, or 355 fatalities. It should be noted that if we look at the cases categorised as suicides and homicides together, their number is almost the same in the two periods. The number of deaths due to health problems up to 2018 was 102 and the number between 2018 and 2023 was 97.

A total of 854 military personnel died between 2012 and 2023, most of them in non-combat situations," the human rights activist said.