Parents of Armenian conscripts achieve week-long vacations for their sons

Armenian authorities have approved the granting of vacations to the regular soldiers who took part in hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, their parents have informed. Also, lists of soldiers in need of medical treatment will be compiled.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that since November 27, parents of Armenian soldiers had been protesting in Yerevan demanding the return of their sons from Karabakh. They fear that soldiers may fall victim to diversions or be captured. They have to sleep on the floor in schools; they should be demobilized ahead of schedule, protesters in Yerevan have claimed.

At their meeting with the Minister of Defence, an agreement was reached that starting December 1, all the regular soldiers will gradually receive seven-day vacations.

The demand for the withdrawal of soldiers from Karabakh had to do with parents' fears that after the transfer of the Kashatag District of the unrecognized republic (it is formed in the territory of Azerbaijan), the soldiers' security would be in jeopardy, one of the protesting women has explained.

According to her story, the soldiers have also faced everyday problems – many barracks are bombed down; and soldiers are placed into buildings without heating and hot water.

Asmik Grigoryan's son takes his service in the village of Madagiz (the Azerbaijani name for the village of Sugovushan) and is due to be demobilized in January 2021. "It would be right for the soldiers who went through the war to get demobilized a month earlier. They went through the whole nightmare of hostilities, lost their colleagues and are greatly depressed," the woman said.

The demands of the soldiers' parents are emotional, "they are not worried about territorial losses," Robert Nazaryan, a military expert, has noted.