Jalal Harutyunyan Personally Barred Everyone from Entering the Headquarters, Says Samvel Babayan

When you say that someone gave orders to this commander and made him do something, that is not true; it’s a lie, and they are all lying. This was stated today by Samvel Babayan, the former Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Artsakh, in an interview with several media outlets.

“Jalal Harutyunyan personally forbade everyone from entering the headquarters. Call it a bunker, call it what you want. He is the commander; he is the decision-maker. If those people don’t want it, I suggest inviting Jalal Harutyunyan for questioning and asking him questions. The operations I have mentioned on television, he has agreed with them, but they are unable to organize them. They are citing human resources and other reasons; that’s their problem, how they frame it, and what it’s for. All those conversations that this person wasn’t allowed to participate—if those heroes had participated, we would have had victory, people, everyone had participated to some extent, some through the president of Artsakh, others through Jalal, but everyone has been a part of it in some way.

Secondly, they couldn’t have blocked me from entering those bunkers officially; now those old guys are upset that I could enter, and they couldn’t, not because I was a good guy, but because I was there officially, and they couldn’t bar me. They held no official position, and at that time, their primary commander in Artsakh had barred those people from coming in. People say they went for three days, and on the fourth day, they weren’t allowed in. Isn’t there a question that arises as to who didn’t allow them in? They say an order came from Armenia not to let them in, but Armenia didn’t give any orders there,” said Babayan.