During a press conference at the Hayeli press club, the commander of the Sisian regiment, Ashot Minasyan “Ashot Yerkat,” announced, “When people began to escape, or the so-called retreat, people announced ‘we have won, we are winning,’ and that began to eat away at us. It was the government’s propaganda without the realization of what was happening at the frontline. The National Security Service is able to extract a recording where Manvel Grigoryan and I were speaking. Manvel Grigoryan said, ‘Ashot, what is the situation like? I am in Fizuli,’ I said that our army is by the Horadiz intersection, they are in danger, they brought out their tanks and are happily celebrating. Our country’s commander-in-chief, being in an inadequate, perhaps drunken state, issues an order that if we can capture Lele Tepe, we will be rewarded. They begin to attack and reach the Horadiz intersection, saying that we have reached Lele Tepe. One of them was given the rank of a general, and the other a hero. He wanted to describe the situation as such that you were the ones who gave away Lele Tepe, but I was the one to liberate it. There was that sense of arrogance. That was when Manvel Grigoryan asked me, ‘Have our troops reached the tanks?’ I will not describe how many tanks we left the enemy and how many casualties we had. If the troops are not going along with the tanks, then the tanks become a target for the enemy, which is what happened. And our troops began to retreat severely.”
Minasyan took footage of how the Sisian regiment escaped. He showed the footage to the President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan. The commander of the regiment was arrested. Then, he was appointed the commander of the Nubarashen regiment. After seeing all of this, “Ashot Yerkat” made the following conclusion. “The situation that arose was one of an agreed defeat. Those who created panic, those who were given other positions or who tried to fire people- this was internal treason. The main culprit is the main person responsible for the country of that betrayal- Nikol Pashinyan.”
He said that he is not referring to Karen Jalavyan or Sergey Shakaryan, but some people received the rank of general or hero without deserving it. “You don’t give the commander of a regiment that escaped the title of hero.”
As far as why the war took place, Ashot Minasyan explained, “When the enemy sees that the leader of your country is a puppet who is unable to lead or do anything, the enemy looks for the opportunity to do what it wants. When the commanders who earned their positions are removed from command posts or removed from office, when all generals who won battles are removed from office, and people are appointed in their place who were incapable of waging war… of course, they were going to be defeated.” Besides that, according to Minasyan, Pashinyan appointed people to positions in the military, economic, and political spheres who did not have the ability to lead.
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According to him, Pashinyan appointed people to positions who degenerated and privatized the army. He was referring to the commander of the border troops.
Regarding the criminal case filed against him, Ashot Minasyan said that it would not be possible to fabricate a case against him because he is a knight.
Hripsime Jebejyan
