‘The bottle fell from my hand, the fire was spreading’: The defendant in the Azat military barrack fire recounts the incident

During the court hearing regarding the fire at the military barracks in Azat village, defendant Yeghishe Hakobyan responded to the public prosecutor’s questions about the events of the day and the outbreak of the fire.

“When I noticed that the stove was out, I went outside and told Levon near the entrance that the stove had gone out and to bring wood. After a while, I went out, went to the storage, and then entered the dining room. When I returned, I saw that the wood had already been placed in the stove. The fire had gone out because the wood was damp. I asked Levon if there was something we could use to reignite the stove, and he said he didn’t know. I went to the storage to find some combustible material to reignite the wood.

I entered the dining room and asked Radik how I could reignite it, where I could get gasoline or diesel fuel. Radik Matevosyan indicated where it was. It was dark, and using my phone's light, I went and found it; I saw that there were plastic and metal containers. In that cold and darkness, it was impossible to pull the fuel out of one of the metal containers. I noticed a plastic container which had some inside, so I took it and went back inside. It was a 5-liter container, half full. At that moment, there was nothing else more suitable to use.

I went inside, and during this time, Radik Matevosyan and Levon Kharaatyan also came in. We drank some coffee in between. The stove had already gone out, and I took it to heat up the stove. I poured it in, closed the lid, and felt smoke coming out. I opened the lid, and immediately the flame burst into my face, burning my face. At that moment, the bottle was in my hand, and it fell to the ground. I pulled back, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the fire was spreading near the outside entrance. I saw that Levon and Radik were trying to put it out with their feet.”

Hakobyan also recounted what he did after the fire broke out. “I went into the armory to try to find something to put out the fire,” he said. According to him, he saw Radik Matevosyan, Levon, Arsen, and Vaghik outside. “At that moment, I noticed that someone was yelling, breaking windows, and someone was bringing fire extinguishers. I took one and wanted to go inside a second time but couldn’t. I saw that one of the soldiers brought an iron pipe and they were trying to bend the bars. I first noticed Zhirayr, then I remember Garush. We grabbed Zhirayr by the shoulder and pulled him out. Garush came up to me; he got out from the side. We shouted, but no other soldiers came close. I climbed up on the balcony to get in. Perhaps my shoulder had gotten in. A soldier approached, and I grabbed his shirt to pull him out. His shirt ripped, and I was left holding it. I then fell back from the balcony.”

Hakobyan noted that he does not understand why the other soldiers could not escape the dormitory. “I don’t know why the others didn’t wake up,” he said. In response to the public prosecutor's question about why he didn’t enter the room, Hakobyan replied that perhaps he didn’t ‘find’ it and tried to extinguish the fire. “They should have come out to help; the fire was near me,” he said.

In the end, Hakobyan stated that he admits his guilt in using prohibited fuel for the stove, which led to the fire but does not accept the soldiers' deaths as a consequence of the fire. “I acknowledge my guilt for lighting the stove with prohibited fuel, which caused a fire. However, I do not accept the soldiers' deaths as being related to the fire. I cannot say what their deaths are related to, as that remains a mystery to me as well.”

Recall that on January 19, 2023, a fire broke out in the barracks of the engineering and assault battalion located in the Ministry of Defense’s base in Azat village, Gegharkunik region, resulting in the deaths of 15 conscript soldiers and 7 additional soldiers being hospitalized. Yeghishe Hakobyan has been charged with violating rules concerning the handling of gasoline and using it to light the barrack stove.