“Vazgen Sargsyan was giving an opportunity for people to work, but he was drawing a borderline that should not be passed over. Vazgen created a group around him, but the groups acted so that a lot of people just left and went away. Andreassian left, Ter-Grigoryants left,”- so expressed the hero of the Shushi and Artsakh war Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, Commandos, about Vazgen Sargsyan and his mistakes, in the interview with “GALA”, recently.
“Aravot” talked to the former First Deputy Defense Minister Andranik Kocharyan regarding the role of Vazgen Sargsyan and his men gathered around him.
– How does the belief of Commandos meet the reality that the generals Norat Ter-Grigoryants and Hrach Andreassyan have left just because of Vazgen Sargsyan?
– There was no military emigration during Vazgen Sargsyan’s period, there was immigration. Vazgen Sargsyan succeeded to bring in a lot of military servants from different place of Armenia, which had an important role during the war, had a decisive role, had the opportunities to be displayed, to participate in solution of key issues for our country, i.e. to form an Armenian Army, and to reach success through this regular structure, both in defense of Armenian borders, and Artsakh. It was undeniable process that managed only Vazgen Sargsyan. None of us could do it, and to forget what he did, and humiliate is the biggest loss for further development of the Armenian Army, today. Vazgen Sargsyan managed to mobilize all the detachments and make it more manageable. Also after coming to power, he managed to solve the issues of formation of the Ministry of Defense in a short period of time. It is also a fact that is impossible to ignore. The policy of MD personnel during Vazgen Sargsyan’s time, and generally the then was implemented not only for making fidai detachments more manageable, but also for the formation of a regular army, and the involvement of a professional officer staff in the establishment of the army was one of the most important basic directions. At that time, not only Ter-Grigoryants, Andreassyan, Ivanyan, Zinevich, Ghukasov, Khatchaturov, Harutyunyan, Abrahamyan came to Armenia … everybody came, and they are so many: generals, colonels, military personnel occupying once high positions in the Soviet army, who came and had the opportunity to participate in the forming the Armenian army. But the fact is that Andreassyan and Ter-Grigoryants had left Armenia when Vazgen Sargsyan was not the Defense Minister for a short time. Serzh Sargsyan at that time was already the Minister of Defense.
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– Were there inconsistencies between Norat Ter-Grigoryants and Vazgen Sargsyan?
– I do not know of such evidence that there were such disagreements with Vazgen Sargsyan that could be a serious obstacle to further servicing of any military servant, except for the inconsistencies that were obstacles in establishment of the army. In other words, there were soldiers who had done such deeds that Vazgen could never forgive. We all know that Vazgen also had great skills to forgive. The strength of Vazgen was not only making unmanageable manageable, but also give people a chance to correct the mistakes. Therefore, a much larger number of people gathered around him. There was no good or bad for Vazgen. Any person involved in the war was a value for Vazgen.
– Do you agree with the Commandos that Vazgen Sargsyan is the person about whom it is forbidden to speak now? I must say that what he did was right, no matter how it is evident that he had done many wrong things.
– I do not understand why the topic about Vazgen Sargsyan is raised, and why Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, the once hero general of Artsakh, has assumed the speculation of this theme, imported by various forces. I do not understand it. Everyone have made errors, and Vazgen Sargsyan would have made his mistakes. But to speak today about the mistakes that were made in the past, and not to talk about errors that are present in different sectors of the state, including in the structures of the army, it is not clear to me. Vazgen’s strength, in fact, continues to worry certain people or systems, which, for some reason, continue to keep a sense of fear from the dead Vazgen.
– Vazgen Sargsyan, as per Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, created such a group around him, which destroyed him and then performed some theaters and brought Nairi Hunanyan. Commandos told that Vazgen Sargsyan has done a favor to many people, and also bad to many people, many people became rich due to him, statues by his name were made. Was Vazgen Sargsyan really surrounded by the kind of people and he had gathered such groupings around him?
– Huge masses were surrounded around Vazgen. Vazgen had his circle of friends, he also had a circle of unfriends, but he was the kind of person who was gathering vast layers in our country. Vazgen can be compared only with the activities conducted by Myasnikyan in the beginning of the century. The latter implemented the most important issue for the state in the beginning of the century, in the end of the century Vazgen solved a problem, within which all other discussions are just senseless. Vazgen was the first Sparapet of victorious army, and the foundations laid by him are so strong until now that even after so much criticism our army is still a victorious army. It was the trace left by Vazgen Sargsyan along with his mistakes. The system, which was formed around Vazgen, was so powerful that these errors did not dismantle the system, but despite these errors, Vazgen Sargsyan continues to be the victorious sparapet. Vazgen had suicide attackers. He found the most correct place to win the war. Azerbaijan pays billions on arms, but it does not have suicide attackers. But people were ready to die for Vazgen’s word. Even 100 people, but Vazgen had those 100 people ready to die. Today, no one has such a thing in Armenia to believe in him, who will gather people around him ready to die. Vazgen’s power was just in this that listening to him, people were going to die. Nobody was thinking about making a heroic deed or building castle after it. There was no such thing, therefore during Vazgen’s time the victory was viable. And it should be remembered, and not to speak about Vazgen’s mistakes. We all had made mistakes, also Vazgen.
– Isn’t the said in the context that as a minister of power he was known for his approaches to giving preference to power solutions, and he became the victim of the so-called “a group of romantics”, which at least were so introduced that they were trying to change something with the method of power.
– Vazgen was so strong that he was neglecting all types of power solutions of his or procedures to be implemented within the state. Vazgen, if it were not so, he would also walked with such bodyguards, which we see from morning till night as to how many people were looking behind every official. Vazgen had Movses Geghangulyan, who was the driver, bodyguard, everything and, in extreme cases, at least 2-3 security officers could go behind Vazgen, being such a great person with highly political influence. Both, Vazgen and Karen Demirchyan, they did not have the habit of constantly putting themselves in the atmosphere of fear, and draw the state into the atmosphere. Vazgen was such, therefore, people qualified as ‘a group of romantics’ could implement a decisive action for the state, as a result of the coup d’etat happened.
– Who was mostly eager to see Vazgen Sargsyan’s death?
– The answer to that question has not yet been given. Our country will begin to recover after disclosure of October 27. After that, the event on March 1st would be revealed, afterwards such things happened in our country would be revealed one after the other, which would lead to such a recovery that we would speak not of mistakes occurred or not occurred, but about the phenomena that hamper our progress, about our prospective, which we have now set aside and continue the battle with illusions. It simply cannot be as such.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
