“Yes, charges have been brought against Jalal Harutyunyan, but it does not end there. We hope that there will be justice, but we also demand that Jalal Harutyunyan be arrested,” said Yeghishe Zakunts, a guest of Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program and a relative of the fallen soldier Ruben Poghosyan, telling in detail what happened to the artillery division of the Tsor military unit, which is one of the episodes of the accusation against the former Minister of Defense of Artsakh.
Already in December 2020, the relatives of those who died in the division wrote the first application regarding the circumstances that appeared in the report issued by the investigative committee on September 2, 2022 regarding the accusation against Jalal Harutyunyan. Let us present excerpts from that episode, according to which, on October 12, “the movement of a group of more than 100 servicemen in the direction of the firing position was observed from the command observation post of the division, located about 1 km before the firing position, on the hill, among which bearers of the RA Armed Forces uniforms were also observed…
The head of the artillery of the unit reported the approaching group by radio to the artillery department of the army and asked to verify their affiliation. The information from the artillery department was passed on to the colonel GB in the command post, who in turn reported it to the lieutenant general JH (Jalal Harutyunyan).
The latter did not comprehensively study, process, or classify the information received about the situation according to the degree of reliability. He did not compare it with the information received from different sources, organize additional intelligence, make complete and justified conclusions as a result of the analysis and evaluation of the data of the situation, discuss the information received with the officers of the relevant services, or examine his working maps, but stated without justification that the given grouping was his own, which was conveyed to the division staff… The commander of the division treated the received information with suspicion and asked once again in his presence to clarify the affiliation of the observed group, after which the additional request to clarify the information was reported to Lieutenant General JH.
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The latter, approaching the working map this time, held a discussion together with the officers of the operational and intelligence departments, after which, without clarifying the affiliation of the approaching personnel, not having any information on the maps about the movement of joint forces units in the given region, he announced that the group was his own, which was transferred to the division staff. Returning to the division command post, the division commander continued to doubt the information received about the identity of the approaching group and continued observation. A few minutes later, the enemy’s sabotage group bypassed the command post and advanced towards the firing positions. The commander of the division made sure from about 500 meters that the approaching group was not his own and ordered to leave the firing position, but as a result of relaying wrong information by Lieutenant-General JH on the mound in front of the firing position and from a distance of about 400 meters opened fire from small arms and grenade launchers in the direction of the personnel and vehicles of the 1st battery.”
Twenty servicemen of the battery crew were killed in an unequal battle. “Back on October 10, the commando asked the general staff to carry out reconnaissance and clarify the situation more concretely. They didn’t even conduct a search,” said the other guest of the program, Naira Melikyan, the mother of the fallen soldier Hayk Melikyan. “In this situation, everything was changing every second, both the characteristics and the general situation of the front… And I can’t say that it was just negligence. I consider this intentional.”
Yeghishe Zakunts gave details about the meeting between the relatives of the fallen servicemen and Jalal Harutyunyan. “None of the parents saw any remorse on his face for the victims and losses we suffered as a result of his actions. And now Jalal should be punished in the most severe way, because if he had said, ‘make a decision on the spot, I’m not sure,’ the boys would be alive today.” Naira Melikyan, giving details about the beginning of the 44-day war, said, “For the first few days, they had no water to drink, no food.” Yeghishe Zakunts added, “On September 30, I went to Vazgenashen to the boys, to the front line, and I took water and food myself.”
“I had acquaintances in the Artsakh presidency who shamelessly moved their children to Yerevan in August. And they still said to me: Nara, you are very worried for that child. I used to say: but I have just one, why shouldn’t I worry? Knowing about that, they brought their children to Yerevan,” said Naira Melikyan, expressing confidence that the outbreak of the war was known in advance. Yeghishe Zakunts, once again expressing confidence that all this was “intentional and arranged,” cited another argument. “We have information from Russian peacekeepers. Information was passed to one of our parents, Jivan (father of Artak Mikayelyan – Jivan Mikayelyan. – ed.) in Artsakh: how did you not know that a fight would start? He said: we already received an order in June to wait until we fly to Armenia.”
Anna ISRAELYAN
