On November 9, 2020, after the defeat in the war, four defense ministers were replaced in Armenia. Davit Tonoyan’s resignation was acceptable after such an outcome in the war. It was not logical to arrest him a year later. If he had committed a crime during or before the war, it would hardly have taken a whole year to uncover the case. Most likely, there is no case.
It’s just that since November 9, we have had many unforeseen territorial losses, and some “ritual sacrifices” in the military are needed to “justify” or divert attention, and one of them was Tonoyan.
Tonoyan was followed by Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who during the war, as an adviser to the Prime Minister (I suppose, in the military field), probably gave valuable advice to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, which contributed to our “success.” During Harutyunyan’s ministry, we also handed over several positions in the sovereign and not disputable territories of Armenia, for which he was probably “punished.” Arshak Karapetyan, known as a “very skilled” intelligence chief and testifying against Kocharyan, came. The surrender of positions continued. The Azeris came to our positions calmly, without any resistance, and removed our soldiers from there. And as a result of “unfolding events,” Karapetyan was replaced by revolutionary-party figure Suren Papikyan. (By the way, it is not so clear why the Chief of General Staff Artak Davtyan is not responsible for that disgrace, but it seems that there are other “compromising facts” on him).
The previous three ministers, of course, have their share of guilt, but the surrender of territories, in my opinion, has deep reasons, which do not disappear with the change of ministers. Have you ever heard Ilham Aliyev say about any action of Armenians during the last 20 years, “Well, they did the right thing, it is their right?” Regardless of all the legal nuances, this is out of the question because it contains a wrong message to both the international community and its own society, including the soldiers in position. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Armenia repeats such a thing almost every day and sometimes adds, “I won’t start a war because of that.” I want to believe that this is being done because Pashinyan has no idea what it means to lead a state, a warring state. But such an approach is a direct way to hand over positions or sections of the highway.
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There is another reason for the deterioration of the situation, about which I will mention briefly here – it is the wrong way of working with Russia. The rest is for another time.
Aram Abrahamyan
