Armenian security agency detains senior army officer

By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

The Armenian National Security Service has detained a senior army officer on charges of transferring soldiers from one unit to another, as well as from the front line to the rear for bribes, the Armenian media have reported.

On September 13, 2020, the unnamed colonel of the Armenian armed forces demanded from a conscript's mother $ 2,000 (AMD 975,000) to transfer the serviceman from one unit to another. He received the first half of the bribe the next day - with the help of a transfer to his account opened on the website of one of the bookmakers, the National Security Service press service was quoted as saying. 

Not to send another conscript to the military unit, whose personnel participated in the recent hostilities in Karabakh, through a mediator, he demanded from his parents $2500 dollars (AMD 987,000) on November 7. He received $2,000 on the same day. To send another soldier to the service area, chosen at the conscript's will, he demanded $10,000 from his parents. 

Already in 2021, the colonel asked for over $ 2,000 (AMD 1 million drams) for the transfer of a conscript soldier to another unit. On January 7-8, he received this amount in parts: the money was again transferred to his account. Furthermore, the National Security Ministry said the suspect was involved in the assignment of military ranks for which he received about $ 3,000.

During the war, the officer of the Armenian armed forces also arranged for another serviceman to be recalled to Yerevan from a hospital in Syunik, after which he transferred him to the rear for AMD 300,000.

It is also known that the colonel "covered" (excluded from the lists of those who abandoned the unit without permission) the desertion of a serviceman from Karabakh during the war. He received another AMD 200,000  to "save" one conscript from being sent to the front from a military unit in Lusakert (although this dispatch was not planned).  The senior officer was taken to the National Security Service and ten more people were detained along with him.

The hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated for the second time in 2020 after Armenia's forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands targeted Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions, causing casualties among civilians and the military. In the early hours of September 27, Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation which lasted six weeks. The operation resulted in the liberation of Azerbaijan's occupied lands.

A Russia-brokered ceasefire deal that Azerbaijan and Armenia signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to the 44-day war between the two countries. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied.