STEPANAKERT — Military authorities in Yerevan reported on Monday the first arrest in the ongoing criminal investigation into the latest shooting in the Nagorno-Karabakh army ranks that left four soldiers dead and four others injured.
The Armenian Defense Ministry also said two other men have been arrested in connection with the killing of a soldier at a military base in northeastern Armenia.
According to official reports, the shooting spree occurred on Friday night at an army unit deployed southeast of the territory. The Karabakh Armenian military identified the dead soldiers as Levon S. Yesayan (born in 1991), Nerses V. Galoyan (born in 1990), Narek V. Sahakyan (born in 1990) and Never M. Sargsyan (born in 1991). The wounded are Sargis A. Melkumyan (born in 1991), Khachik S. Alexanyan (born in 1992), Masis M. Grigoryan (born in 1991) and Manvel A. Azroyan (born in 1991). They gave no details of the extraordinary incident, saying only it was not caused by enemy fire.
An official at the Armenian Defense Ministry’s Investigative Department told RFE/RL’s Armenian services that one of the soldiers of the unit has been arrested on suspicion of shooting fellow conscripts. The official said his identity will not be disclosed for now “in the interests of the investigation.”
It is thus not yet clear whether the suspect is one of the four soldiers who were wounded in the shootout and are now treated at a military hospital in Stepanakert. Military authorities there did not allow journalists to interview them on Monday.
The shootings occurred about four months after a similar incident reported from another Karabakh Armenian frontline detachment. One officer and five soldiers were killed as a result.
Military investigators say one of those servicemen gunned down the others before taking his own life. It is still not clear what might have caused him to do that. Several Karabakh Armenian officers were dismissed and demoted following the incident.
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