Veteran of the Artsakh Liberation War, the founder of the first reconnaissance-sabotage detachment in Armenia, and founder-commander of the VOMA public-military patriotic organization, Vova Vardanov, spoke about the reasons for the undesirable events taking place at the border.
“Everything comes from the fact that soldiers did not carry out their responsibilities on time. When soldiers go to the front lines, they are given the order to defend and maintain the borders. Maintain and defend. The police are the ones who do maintenance in the city. But the border guards or Ministry of Defense soldiers maintain and defend the borders at the front lines. Maintenance means to observe and, if possible, prevent. Defend if it is not possible to prevent. The force that has entered your territory, or that has obviously shown signs of aggression without entering your territory, must be destroyed. In that case, not shooting would have an even more difficult consequence.
If our soldiers at the border received the appropriate commands, and felt that the appropriate people and agencies were standing besides them, instead of them feeling as though they are simply registered individuals, they would not have been scared or worried. They would have shot, and, if possible, this entire issue would not have happened. It was not necessary to eliminate them; they could have been stopped with gun shots,” he said.
Vova Vardanov is not interested in the behavior of the political authorities regarding this issue. “The Ministry of Defense and the NSS exist, both of which need to carry out their functions. As a result of their inactivity, the soldiers and subdivisions did not fire, and the border was not defended. The diplomatic field came forward later. Who said that the superiors must decide whether you should shoot or not? The superiors have decided that much earlier as a result of legislation and regulations that have legal power. There, it is clearly written that shots must be fired as a result of aggression.
When you go to serve, responsibilities and rights exist. The maintenance and defense of the borders of the Republic of Armenia is one of the responsibilities. And when responsibilities are not carried out, it is necessary to think- why not, it is necessary to punish some or many people,” he said, commenting on the situation.
Vova Vardanov also approached the question with understanding; the army is in a state of depression, and soldiers are confused in some of the new areas. In other words, in the mountains where it is difficult to position yourself to begin with, soldiers do not know whether the territory or heights in front of them belong to their country or the enemy. And that means that good work has not been implemented.
Ashot Hakobyan
