Don't pay much attention to Balasanyan's press conferences: Andranik Kocharyan

Don't pay much attention to Vitaly Balasanyan's press conferences; it seems as though the life of our country revolves around the absurd agenda he has raised.

This was the response from Andranik Kocharyan, chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee, during a briefing with journalists regarding the recent statements made by Balasanyan, the former secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh.

Kocharyan noted that Balasanyan had also spoken about the likelihood of being summoned to the investigative committee of the April war. He emphasized once again that Balasanyan could not have had any authority during the war due to his being discharged, thus there is essentially no need to summon him to the committee.

“Everybody went to the front during April to provide some form of support, but no one turned that into a heroic story. Yet Balasanyan claims that he said, ‘bring out the artillery, fire,’ and so forth. Such a thing cannot be true; a person who is out of the army, a former military man, cannot issue orders and expect them to be executed,” said Kocharyan.

At the same time, he mentioned that he might see a reason to summon Balasanyan to the investigative committee when he heard a well-known former opposition politician's opinion a few days ago stating that Balasanyan should be given a second title of hero in connection with April: “For what heroism? If it is connected to April, if there is a heroic narrative, if a problem has been solved, we will summon him to the committee. However, Balasanyan has stated that he does not intend to come to the NSS or the Special Investigative Service to answer questions because he is a citizen of Artsakh. I find this a little hard to understand,” Kocharyan said, adding that if necessary, he would publicly appeal to Balasanyan, and if he has something to say, he will say it, but he currently has no questions for him.

Kocharyan also announced that the committee will question the leadership of the Defense Army, and if it turns out that Balasanyan, as a former military man, issued any orders during the war, that would indicate serious problems in the management of the Defense Army.