I Don't Understand How the Adversary Appeared Near Shushi: Robert Kocharian

The authorities are lying by claiming that they inherited a bad legacy from the previous governments concerning negotiations. This was stated today, December 4, by Armenia's second president Robert Kocharian in an interview with the "5th Channel" TV station.

"Have you heard any truthful words from this government in the past 2.5 years? I have not. In the end, as he said, it's his fault, and this is roughly what he says - it’s you again saying it. Who is to blame? I don’t even want to address that question... they are absolutely lying. They received a very good situation in the negotiation process, and it was necessary not to start from scratch but to reinforce the agreements made in St. Petersburg and Vienna, which were specifically aimed at preventing the resumption of war, rather than going somewhere in dubious elevators to obtain agreements. From that perspective, they inherited a very good situation in both the negotiation process and the army; it was just necessary not to change the agreements that were made regarding, for example, air defense systems, but to implement and deepen the existing agreements and perhaps add something more," he said.

Addressing the mystery of Shushi's fall, the second president stated that it is not only unclear to him how Shushi was handed over, but also how the adversary appeared near Shushi. "They entered from Jabrail in pickups on foot, captured Hadrut, then entered Fizuli, captured the village of Tog, and the Great Taghlars, passed through the village of Shekher in the Martuni region, the entire Askeran sub-region, and appeared in Karin Tak. During all this time, which lasted approximately over two weeks, no new front lines were constructed, no obstacles were placed; we were trying to do something there with small forces. During this time, Vitaly Balasanyan offered to take over the responsibility for the entire front but did not do it. I have no answers to these questions as to why it happened.

In one week in Artsakh, everyone was talking about some operation that was supposed to happen... imagine the map of Hadrut; it was like a snake, so long that you were surprised how they ensured their rear, how they evacuated the wounded, and we couldn’t counter at all. There was talk of some operation, even Arayik Harutyunyan stated during a meeting with deputies that an operation was being prepared that would defeat the enemy right in those areas; forces were concentrated, gatherings, consultations took place. Yet, no operation ever took place, and it remains unclear why. We need to have an answer to this question as well: why did it not happen—I do not know.

Related to Shushi, I have numerous questions and no answers; no military expert can understand what happened there, and I do not think we are capable of figuring it out as long as this government remains in power. If we want to know the truth, this government must leave, and only then the military themselves should tell the truth," Kocharian stated.

Armenia's second president Robert Kocharian continues to assert what he has said over the past 2.5 years: the persecutions against him and the criminal case were linked to the Artsakh issue. "At that time, I said based on analyses and assumptions. It was not clear to me why three generals who passed a heroic path ended up in the defendant's chair, alongside numerous other criminal cases against various generals, colonels. The personnel changes made in the army also led to the systematic removal of proven generals and military personnel. I suspect that this is a process aimed at deliberately undermining the army; I just couldn't determine if this was purely a lack of confidence in the army stemming from treachery or whether it was part of a larger plan. And I believe that those criminal cases and the attempts at discrediting various officers by accusing them of being involved in corruption schemes were all aimed at one goal: undermining the army. But I repeat, I find it difficult to evaluate whether this stemmed from pathological distrust of the army or whether it was part of a larger plan; however, this is a fact, and it significantly affected people's attitudes toward the officer corps and generals during this war," he concluded.