Reports (Epress.am): Armenia Defense Ministry insists no sexual assault incident at Goris military base

*via Epress.am

Armenian Defense Ministry Insists No Sexual Assault Incident at Goris Military Base

Epress.am received news of an incident that took place in one of the military bases in Goris last week: apparently a high-ranking officer, entering the base, witnessed three soldiers sexually assaulting another soldier.

As a form of punishment, the officer allegedly shot at the feet of the abusers.

Epress.am spoke with senior public relations officer of the Special Investigative Service at the RA Ministry of Defense Meri Sargsyan, who noted that no such incident took place.

“This information is not true,” she said.

Deputy director of special school in Yerevan detained with charges of child rape and trafficking

A1+ reports, citing Yerevan police statement, that a deputy director of special school where children with anti-social (‘difficult’) background study, has been detained with charges of male rape and trafficking. According to reports, not only he allegedly raped at least one 12 years old male student but was also accused in physical violence towards pupils and forcing them to become beggars.

*Full A1+ report - under the comments section below (in Armenian)

Report: Young gay male recruit in the Armenian army ran away and in hiding after the officers "wanted to rape him"

PINK Armenia just posted this brief news that young male recruit in the Armenian army ran away and in hiding now following a rape threat by the officers who "wanted to rape him" after they found out that he is gay.

Below is the info as it appeared on PINK Armenia blog:

"We were informed by email that a young guy ran away from the army on March 17th, because officers understood that he is gay and they wanted to rape him. The situation is out of control, he is hidden somewhere now and waiting that in the morning police will make a search.

We are trying to clarify and in case to protect him, this is all that we can say now."

If confirmed, this is truly a horrific case, and reportedly not infrequent in the Armenian army.

During the recent meeting with the New York based Armenian gay rights group - AGLA NY, Lala Aslikyan of Huys NGO presented a documented case of male rape in the Armenian army.

Brutality of Homophobia in Armenia (presentation by Lala Aslikyan)

Lala Aslikyan, Huys NGO (Armenia), made this presentation on 16 January 2009, at the meeting with New York based Armenian gay rights group- AGLA NY. It's a damning account on brutal face of homophobia in Armenian society, including in the Armenian army. (more about the latter - in my further posts)



Documented case of rape in the Armenian army



(About Lala Aslikyan) Lala Aslikyan is a psychologist and a political scientist, human rights advocate. She is a member of “Huys” (”Hope”) NGO in Armenia, dealing with human rights protection and advocacy. Since 2004 she has initiated and organized several public forums, demonstrations, public actions aimed at the protection of human rights, free media and implementation of basic democratic principles in Armenia. Particularly, she was involved in the successful advocacy campaign related to a large number of murders in the Armenian army. She was actively engaged in the protests on March 1 and in following events, which put her in dangerous position while dealing with police and army forces used against people and journalists in Yerevan.

She works as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in the community project, financed by USAID, Armenia.

Prior to her visit to NY Lala had several meetings in Armenia to prepare a brief presentation on LGBT rights violations in Armenia for the LGBT community in NY. During her 10 minute talk she will give a picture of the LGBT situation in Armenia, highlighting specific problems and the character of violence and harassment based on homophobia in Armenia.

*videos - via AGLA NY