Talking about the change of the route connecting Armenia to Artsakh at the government session on March 30, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed that the Armenian position had remained the same, with the difference that they intend to protect the given sector through border troops. “The units of the Ministry of Defense will withdraw from the same positions along the state border of the Republic of Armenia, according to the plan, and units of the Border Guard troops will be deployed in their place.”
Argam Hovsepyan, head of the “Aprelu Yerkir” faction of the Tech community Council of Elders considered this illogical. “Border guards guard the border when there is no war situation. Has he adjusted the borders, and is he now setting up a border guard force? Has he demarcated and delimitated borders? In a war situation, he brings two people to stand before the 13 posts; what should he do? What can you call it? Who has seen such a thing?”
Beniamin Matevosyan, a political scientist of the “Polytekonomiya” Research Institute and a guest of the “Aravot” “Areresum” (“Confrontation”) program, continued those questions. “The problem is not only that the Armenian side is trying to deploy border guards there… The problem is also that there are no border guards from the Azerbaijani side. We also need to understand where they are leading and what is happening. There is a discrepancy between what the Azerbaijani side does and how Armenia reacts.”
And maybe that circumstance was decisive for the decision to deploy border guards instead of the army during the enemy’s September operations; when the directions entrusted to protecting the National Security Service border guards in the Syunik sector were not targeted by the enemy, not a single shot was fired, and not a single person was injured. In other words, the enemy had targeted the areas protected by the RA Armed Forces. The NSS confirmed this information of “168 hours” in writing. “We inform you that during the days of the military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan in September 2022, not a single shot was fired by the enemy in the direction of the guarded areas of the Border Guard troops of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia.”
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The other guest of the program, the President of the “Armenian Historical and Geographical Union,” and the Director of “Profile Media” Armen Minasyan, said that the Armenian authorities imagine the situation in the same way and that the territories that they transfer as a result of behind-the-scenes agreements, Azerbaijan no longer has an appetite for them. “But I don’t believe it because I am sure Azerbaijan is consistent, step by step, going to redraw the borders. There is a fairy tale of the cuckoo in folk folklore. If there is no resistance, there is no problem with carrying the next pup. It does not matter what chevron (army emblem) the soldiers standing at that base wear, be it the armed forces, the border guard troops, or the “Violet” kindergarten – in principle, there is no difference if there is an order not to resist.”
The entire conversation is in the video
Anna ISRAYELYAN
