On Human Rights Day, Irina Ghazaryan, mother of Arthur Ghazaryan, a soldier who died during peacetime military service, publicly appealed to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan, demanding they fulfill past promises to investigate her son’s death.

“I gave my son to the state, and I demand answers,” she said at a press conference, voicing frustration over 15 years without justice. “Anna Vardapetyan is a liar who hasn’t kept her promise. Nikol Pashinyan says one thing and does another. My son was killed in Hadrut, and no one has been held accountable.”

Irina Ghazaryan emotionally recalled that on December 21, it will be 15 years since her son’s death. “People are celebrating. I’m decorating a grave, not a Christmas tree. Don’t I deserve to have a tree too? Don’t you feel anything for these boys? Just say it, yes, they were killed, and let the parents move on.”

She said her son was serving in a unit stationed in Hadrut and last spoke to her on December 14, 2010. “He said, ‘Mom, we’re sitting in Turkish territory, eating bread.’ He told me that Martin Jhangiryan said they would be trading with Turks.” On December 17, she was told her son was hospitalized in a coma, but upon arrival, she saw he was already dead. “His eyes were open, his mouth glued shut. They claimed he was in a coma. If so, why was there glue in his mouth?”

According to her, from the beginning, neither the investigator nor the then-head of the inquiry team — now Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan — took action. “She saw my son’s body, went into shock for 15–20 minutes. You personally reviewed the case. You saw the body. They were pumping hot air into him at Muratsan Hospital. Don’t you feel a shred of humanity to admit I’m right and that my son was murdered?”

She added that parents are demanding a revision of the official causes of death for their children. “Anna Vardapetyan initially said this was clearly a murder. If that’s true, then she must stand up and say: the parents are right, the boys were killed, and everyone in the military base saw something.”