In a conversation with Aravot Daily, Vladimir Poghosyan, advisor to Onik Gasparyan, former Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, and Security Adviser to the RA President during the First Artsakh War, spoke about Ilham Aliyev’s recent statement. “Everything comes from making irresponsible statements. Do you remember, there was an information leak from the Ministry of Defense that during the board meeting there was talk that if the enemy crosses the border, we will use force, and it was spread in the press. The question arises of if first of all, the enemy has crossed the border a long time ago and is currently at Lake Sev, if you are ready, go and push them back from our border.
The same statement was made when presenting to the commander of the Third Corps, then during the meeting with CSTO Secretary Stanislav Zas, and then during the meeting with Russian Defense Minister Shoigu, but there is a difference between that statement and what is in the press. We will do this, we will do that. I want to say that we should not fall into euphoria, about which I have already warned everyone.”
Vladimir Poghosyan emphasized, “The first person who wants to get rid of the opponent is me, but we have to be very careful when making statements. Besides, the army should not make statements; the army should do its job. I do not understand what that part of the statement means: if someone does not shoot or stays back, we will punish them. In other words, what do they want to say to our people: the enemy is there until now, so our officers did not want it, our army did not want it? So there was an order, right? Do you want to prove to the people that our officers are weak? No. So say that we canceled that order and now we are ordering them to shoot… We should not pour dirt on our officers.
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On the same day, I warned everyone that after such a statement, you will receive an answer in a few hours. We are engaged in provocations so that in case of attack, they say that it is not them, and it is our fault. Aliyev made a statement that if you are going to take any steps, he will prove that you are not capable of it. We are obviously not scared of Aliyev, but the question arises of why you’re not quietly preparing the army and instead, declaring that “Artsakh is Armenia and that’s it” as in the past? Are you still forcing the enemy to start a war? Who will be responsible for that? It is very dangerous for PR to take such steps. I warn everyone again, you should not fall into euphoria. You should work very carefully because the situation is very serious.
Or why do we always turn to the CSTO? Or we always tell Russia to defend our territories. What, we do not have an army, do we not have border troops? In other words, are we handing over our sovereignty to someone else, even though Russia is our ally, but all the same, we are surrendering our sovereignty if a third country protects our borders. What do we want to show the people- that we do not have an army and have to turn to Russia? I do not agree. The people believe that we have an army. Since our army has maintained its high rating over the past 30 years, maybe it is not in anyone’s interest- they want to break that rating. We have two such institutions, the church and the army, which have a high reputation. Why are we throwing dirt on the army? If we tell the Russians and CSTO to come, then do we want to prove that we do not have an army?
The enemy then asks us what kind of state we are since we are incapable of defending our own borders, and at the same time, we are making statements that we will use force. I do not understand what we are doing or where we are going. Let them deal with the army and serve the army well. There are many things lacking in our positions, such as, say, night-vision equipment. Volunteers carry various goods and equipment. Maybe we should deal with that and prepare the army instead of making statements so that the army will shed blood later. We must become stronger. We must understand one thing: the CSTO will not come and defend our borders, Kazakhs will not shoot at the Azerbaijanis, nor will the Kyrgyz or the Belarusians…
So these statements are meaningless talk. If we want to turn to someone and force them, we must first turn to our ally Russia, with whom we have a treaty since 1997. If we are attacked or shot, that treaty comes into force. I wonder why they do not appeal to Russia with that agreement, but to the CSTO.”
Gohar Hakobyan
