Artsakh's Defense Army Will Be Disbanded Soon: Mikael Minasian

Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian wrote: “I watch with a smile as the Ministry of Defense is ‘surprised and outraged’ by the NSS's latest PR stunt, which has the sole purpose of covering up and distracting public attention. The high-ranking personnel in the Ministry of Defense have known everything for a long time, and in much more detail than what is being reported in the NSS's theatrical piece.

The public was also aware of the frauds concerning the procurement of weapons and ammunition, but that doesn’t stop many from now speaking about it with wide-eyed surprise. I have talked months ago about how weapons were bought at an exorbitantly high price during Nikol's time, about ammunition sold to third countries, about malfunctioning weapons that were handed to us, and failures of the OSA-ACA systems, presenting evidence of the plundering occurring in the army, and now I’m surprised that there are still those who are astonished.

Today’s situation is very similar to the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1961, when the ‘repressions’ of Stalin were ‘revealed’ and an entire country and its elite suddenly ‘learned’ that there had been repressions, deportations, and executions. Unfortunately, astonishment is not a shield of innocence. So no matter how much you ‘marvel and rage’, no one will escape accountability. No one. Neither the directors of today’s theater nor those pretending to be ‘surprised’.

Therefore, I suggest we stop focusing on cheap shows aimed at cleaning traces and talk about the important topic that was one of the factors in destroying the army. From the very first day of Nikol Pashinyan’s tenure, he has bred an unimaginable number of medalists and awardees, general-colonels, heroes of Artsakh and Armenia. Today we have a shattered army, Artsakh surrendered to the enemy, an unprotected Syunik, in short, we have no security system, but we have newly minted many heroes and generals.

Of course, there have been heroes in this war. There have been people who have deservedly been awarded and received titles, but the number of awardees is unimaginably larger than the worthy ones. Unfortunately, in this war, there are way too many who have not done their duty, have not defended the country from external and internal enemies, but received high ranks from the bloody hands of a state traitor and continue to ‘serve’ in their warm offices without any pangs of conscience, knowing that it is also because of them that 5000 young men have perished.

And every time we surrendered a village or area, ‘new generals’ were bred. After each failed operation, new ‘heroes’ would emerge. Losing the homeland continuously, we gained new heroes and generals continuously. To put it more plainly, according to open sources, the winning Azerbaijan has given the title of general to 8 servicemen during this time and has named only 3 as national heroes. Meanwhile, at least 10 servicemen have received or been promoted to the rank of general in Armenia and Artsakh during and after the war, with 7 in Armenia and 14 in Artsakh being awarded the title of National Hero. Is this normal? Of course not.

And do you know why this is happening? Because Nikol is trying to buy the ‘loyalty’ of the army by mixing dignified individuals with the undeserving, attempting to buy their silence. In my deep conviction, if the high-ranking officers of the army had even a little morality, they would arrest the traitor, saving the country from internal enemies, and those with dignity would resign or commit suicide because, I repeat, the blood of 5000 victims is also on their conscience, but experience has shown that there were neither moral individuals nor those with dignity.

This list will be reviewed in the future to ensure that no unworthy general wears epaulets and no worthy individual goes unrecognized.

P.S. To ensure that you’re not surprised again tomorrow, I’ll say that Nikol and Vagharshak Harutyunyan have already given their approval and the Artsakh Defense Army will soon be disbanded. Whether its formal name will be Artsakh militia, Artsakh gendarmerie, or police internal troops does not matter; the point is that the remaining part of Artsakh will no longer have the ability to ensure its own security. There will no longer be an Artsakh army, and the sole responsible person and guilty party is Nikol Pashinyan, who is completing his ‘mission’.