Azatutyun.am. Another former commander of Nagorno-Karabakh’s army is prosecuted in Armenia for serious military setbacks suffered during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, it emerged on Friday.
The Investigative Committee said it has indicted Lieutenant-General Jalal Harutiunian on two counts of “careless attitude towards military service.” It decided not to arrest him for now.
One of the accusations stems from an Armenian counteroffensive against advancing Azerbaijani forces launched on October 7, 2020 ten days after the outbreak of large-scale fighting. Its failure facilitated Azerbaijan’s subsequent victory in the six-week war.
In a statement, the Investigative Committee said Harutiunian ordered two army units to launch an attack southeast of Karabakh despite lacking intelligence and the fact that they were outnumbered by the enemy and had no air cover. It said he failed to “seriously examine” their combat-readiness.
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The law-enforcement agency also blamed the general for poor coordination between the units which it said also contributed to the failure of the operation. He should have stopped or delayed the counteroffensive that left scores of Armenian soldiers dead and 19 battle tanks destroyed, it said.
Harutiunian was also charged over the capture by Azerbaijani troops of the frontline positions of a Karabakh Armenian artillery unit on October 12, 2020. The Investigative Committee statement said that this was the result of inaccurate information provided by Harutiunian to the unit. The latter lost at least 20 soldiers and 8 howitzers on that day.
It was not immediately clear whether Harutiunian will plead guilty to the accusations. If convicted, he will face between four and eight years.
The 47-year-old general was seriously wounded in an Azerbaijani missile strike on October 26, 2020. He was appointed as head of an Armenian military inspectorate after recovering from his wounds.
Harutiunian’s successor as Karabakh army commander, Mikael Arzumanian, was arrested in Armenia earlier this week on different criminal negligence charges. In particular, the Investigative Committee holds him responsible for the November 2020 fall of the strategic Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha). Arzumanian reportedly denied this accusation.
Armenian opposition leaders criticized Arzumanian’s arrest, saying that it is part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s efforts to deflect blame for the disastrous war. They hold Pashinian primarily responsible for Armenia’s defeat.
“Nikol needs scapegoats,” Hayk Mamijanian of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc told the Yerkir Media TV channel, commenting on the charges leveled against Harutiunian.
Pashinian denied last year opposition allegations that he is the one who ordered the bungled counteroffensive in October 2020. He also blamed Armenia’s former leaders for the outcome of the 2020 war.
