On January 21, the Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan visited the 2nd Army Corps together with First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Major-General Edward Asryan, the Ministry of Defense said in a press release.
After holding a moment of silence in memory of the servicemen who died in the January 19 fire and extending condolences to their families, the Minister of Defense introduced the new Commander of the 2nd Army Corps, Colonel Garegin Poghosyan.
Minister Papikyan then visited the scene of the tragic fire in the barracks of the engineering-sapper company.
The Head of the Military Police Major-General Ashot Zakaryan briefed the Minister of Defense on certain details from the incident. Minister Papikyan expressed confidence that the criminal investigation into the incident will reveal all answers and the full circumstances of the incident. Minister Papikyan ordered heads of units in charge to strongly focus on the maintenance of fire safety rules in order to completely rule out such incidents.
Minister Papikyan also visited the construction site of modular barracks and issued instructions on properly completing the construction within the outlined schedule.
