Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has traded bitter accusations with his former defense minister, Arshak Karapetyan, who has accused him of high treason and pledged to topple him.
Karapetyan, who served as defense minister for three months in 2021, blamed the Armenian government for Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive and resulting recapture of Karabakh in a video circulated last October. He said he will launch a “political movement to liberate Armenia” from “a bunch of cowards and amateurs” governing it.
Pashinyan hit back at Karapetyan during a news conference on Tuesday. He said he sacked the general on November 15, 2021 because the latter failed to inform him that Azerbaijani troops attacked a section of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and seized Armenian army positions there the day before.
“There are two possible explanations: either Arshak Karapetyan was unaware of that or was aware but did not report to me,” he said.
Karapetyan was quick to respond to the prime minister in a video posted on YouTube. He insisted that on November 14, 2021 he was in Dubai on a working visit and was “physically unable to report the situation to Mr. our leader.”
Read also
The ex-minister, who is believed to be based in Russia, went on to claim that Pashinyan ordered Armenian troops not to open fire at Azerbaijani forces that crossed another section of the border earlier in May 2021. He also accused the premier of preventing him from rebuilding Armenia’s armed forces with Moscow’s help.
“The fact that he mentioned my name means he realizes that his days are numbered. He will go and he will answer for Artsakh, for our captives, for not dealing with their release,” declared Karapetyan. He labeled Pashinyan as “probably the most weak, cowardly and treacherous leader” Armenians have ever had.
Later on Tuesday, Pashinyan posted on TikTok purported screenshots of his November 14, 2021 WhatsApp correspondence with Karapetyan. It includes a short voice message from Karapetyan in which he assured Pashinyan that “everything is alright here.”
“Where are you?” Pashinyan is shown replying seven hours later. He then told the minister to give a “public explanation of what happened” at the border section.
The seemingly incomplete screenshots do not show the exact nature of the online exchange between the two men. Pashinyan’s critics decried the fact that he used an insecure social media messaging app to communicate with his defense minister.
Incidentally, Pashinyan did not indicate any discontent with Karapetyan when he introduced the latter’s replacement, Suren Papikian, to senior Defense Ministry officials later in November 2021. “I told Mr. Karapetyan this morning that I still regard him as a teammate,” he said at the time.
Karapetyan, 57, had served as chief of Armenian military intelligence until being fired in 2016 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. Pashinyan appointed him as his national security adviser shortly after coming to power in May 2018. He promoted Karapetyan to the post of defense minister in August 2021.
An opposition party set up by Karapetyan is due to hold its founding congress in Yerevan next month. It is not clear whether the ex-minister will return to Armenia to attend the gathering.
