Wounded Armenian Serviceman Succumbs to Injuries, Another NKR Soldier Killed on LoC

Garik Vardanyan, 21, Succumbs to Wounds Sustained in December; Arayik Sargsyan, 22, Fatally Shot Under ‘Unclear’ Circumstances

STEPANAKERT, NKR (A.W.)—Two Armenian servicemen, Garik Vardanyan (b. 1996) and Arayik Sargsyan (b. 1995), died on Jan. 15 and 16 respectively, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Defense Ministry reported.

Vardanyan—who was wounded by Azerbaijani fire on Dec. 30, 2016—succumbed to his wounds on the evening of Jan. 15 at the Central Clinical Military Hospital of Armenia in Yerevan.

Vardanyan was from the Armenian village of Aygestan and was severely wounded as a result of an Azerbaijani ceasefire violation in the northeastern direction of the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh/NKR) Line of Contact (LoC), according to a press statement released by the NKR Defense Ministry.

Sargsyan sustained a fatal gunshot wound, on Jan. 16 at around 12:35 p.m. According to a NKR Defense Ministry statement, Sargsyan—who lived in the NKR’s Hadrut region—was fatally shot in his NKR Defense Army unit in the southeastern direction of the LoC under “unclear” circumstances.

The Ministry announced that an investigation is underway to find out the details of the incident.

In a separate statement, the Ministry announced that Azerbaijan continued violating the ceasefire along the LoC on Jan. 15-16. “Aside from shooting weaponry, the NKR Defense military outposts in the eastern and northeastern parts were also subjected to intense shelling. The Azerbaijani army fired 54 shells from mortars,” read a part of the statement, which also said that NKR forces took immediate action to subdue the military aggression.

“The full accountability for the consequences of the further aggravation of the situation at the frontline lies on the Azerbaijani side. If such demeanor by the adversary continues, the [NKR] Defense Army will take more severe action,” the statement concluded.