“When the ceasefire agreement was signed, Norat Ter-Grigoryants was present there. Why he was not offended then, that question was not raised then. Or, 20 years elapsed and now it occurred to his mind that mistakes have been made then. And has he forgotten the conditions under which we signed the ceasefire, under what condition our country was,” so responded former Deputy Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Gagik Melikyan in the conversation with Aravot.am, in response to the statement made by Lieutenant-General Norat Ter-Grigoryants that the disgraceful ceasefire agreement signed in Bishkek is a treachery, tomfoolery and stupidity.
Note that recently, during the Russian RT TV transmission, Norat Ter-Grigoryants has told why he had left the country offended. As reported by 1in.am, the General has mentioned that serious disagreements have arisen between him and the military-political leaders of Armenia because of the cease-fire agreement. According to him, it was not worthy for the winning state to sign such a disgraceful ceasefire, which was not driven from the interests of the Armenian people and the state. “This disgraceful agreement was signed by people who had no clue about the political and military affairs, they did not know what is meant by a strategy. The Bishkek cease-fire agreement was an arrangement written on the sand, a thing that does not represent anything, it was not only a disgraceful agreement, but also tomfoolery and stupidity. There is no commitment or guarantee, because the war could restart the very next day. The agreement did not provide any distinct borderline and Azerbaijan was not compelled to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.”
We clarified from Gagik Melkonyan whether we did not have an alternative then, and whether we should have signed the agreement, the General replied, “No, there was no alternative, because at that time we could not compel anything to anybody. The third state was reconciling our two states and it was not accepting any condition. As for Norat, he was Lieutenant-General and Chief of Staff, whom they were listening to. During those times, if he was bringing his fist down on the table saying, “You know what?”, and they will listen to him. Why was he offended? He could have raised the issue and have said what he wanted to the government authorities. The Army at that time was the most powerful and dictating structure. Let him strike his hand on the table saying, it should be so. He was the head of the General Staff, and could compel Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Why didn’t he do it? Hence, I do not accept his reasoning that there was a treachery. Some minor people begin giving assessments from the side. They have not been in the battle field, nor in the state of war; they were seated under the walls, and now, they are criticizing the then government. In those winning years, they are saying that it was dark, there was no light and it was cold. These were the years of our victory rather than the years of darkness. Someone, let’s say, was eating meal in the light of the lamp, but we are the ones who won.”
As for the accusations that Levon Ter-Petrosyan was not aware of the situation and did not know what was going on in the front, Gagik Melkonyan said, “I do not want to find fault with, the war passed away. I do not want to find fault with any commander of the troops, but I must say that Mr. Norat Ter-Grigoryants was not either aware of what is going on in the front. We were occupying territories, two days later only, they were getting to know that these territories are occupied. Let him not forget that he was the kind of General. At that time, no one was aware of many questions of how and what. How could the president of a country be unaware of what is going on? Or, now, Norat has gone to Russia, slept and seen dreams. Does he recall now of what had happened 20 years ago? I can sit in front of him, talk to him vis-à-vis and tell hundred things to him. But it is not good to find fault with anyone. Once, Commandos was also working in the same way, and I said a few things about Commandos. It is not good, you have passed a war, and we have won. Why do you want to stir all over again? Each of you made a mistake, each of you did something, but most importantly, we have won a united victory together with the president, minister, General Staff and the last soldier. We should be proud. And you know what is bad that our nation, when defeated, always knew exactly what to do after the defeat. This time that we have won, we do not know what to do after the victory. This is the trouble.”
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According to Gagik Melkonyan, Norat Ter-Grigoryants left Armenia for another reason. “Let him say the main reason. It was not the reason.” To our question of whether it is true that the problem was only with his disagreements to the decisions of Generals Andreasyan and Dalibaltayan, therefore he has left the country offended when his words were not considered, Melkonyan replied, “Andreasyan was a very powerful man. Indeed, we can say that he had clue about everything – the war, and knew what is what. They did not find common language with each other to continue their work. And this does not mean that he had disagreements with the government. Lieutenant-Generals Andreasyan and Norat Ter-Grigoryants did not understand each other, therefore, he left. The government authorities did not commit treachery. Our conditions the then dictated so and we could not bring forward any other condition. The war was on.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
