I Proposed the Idea of the Lele Tepe Operation: Samvel Babayan

The idea of the Lele Tepe operation was proposed by me. This was stated by former Secretary of the National Security Council of Artsakh, Samvel Babayan, in an interview with Public TV presenter Petros Ghazaryan.

“As far as I know, during the war and after, in these last 5-6 days, they have been more actively mentioning Lele Tepe. One person says Babayan is a civilian, he has been stripped of his rank. If that person, Garnik Isagulyan, does not revoke the order regarding stripping of the rank, then he is lying. The idea of the operation was mine. On October 5-6, one flank of the enemy was already at the mouth of Jabrail, the other flank had taken the village of Banjazur in Hadrut, and the third flank was moving towards Khodafarin. Mr. Pashinyan was contacting Onik Gasparyan via video link about what the generals here were saying. I intervened during the conversation and said that if you are able to organize defense in that area, we don’t need to do anything, but if we can’t, the only option left is that step. The person said it is not possible; we do not have the resources to stop the enemy in those three directions. This means that we are left with Horadiz, Lele Tepe is 9-10 km away from there. There is a direct road from Horadiz down to the Araks River; if we are not able to close that 12 km, then how can we establish defense over 100 km?”

Babayan stated, “This proposal came from me; we liberated those territories in the same way back in 1993. The sad fact is that one of the participants is saying we have blocked the road, we have taken them in a ring, whoever crossed to the Iranian side, and whoever perished. It was proposed to act the same way, and both Jalal and Onik Gasparyan accepted that yes, that is the only way.”

Babayan pointed out that they are talking about over 700 casualties and 44 pieces of equipment lost, whereas only 2 casualties occurred after the operation on October 7 and 4 tanks were hit.

When asked why the operation faced such a fate, Babayan responded that the officers refused. “The commander of the motorized infantry brigade was injured, the duties were passed to the deputy, who categorically refused to move the troops. Moreover, out of the 23 tanks that were to be sent from his position to Fizuli, only 2 reached there; 21 remained on the roads. And when this equipment is brought in for repair, it turns out it had no issues whatsoever.”

When Petrus Ghazaryan inquired if there was treason, Babayan replied that an investigation should be conducted. “That’s why I am saying an investigation should be held. Let’s not say the word ‘treason’; let’s say either they were scared or sabotage was made. The investigation will determine which occurred. The issue is that there was disorder; the officers were not at their posts, and unworthy commanders were appointed. Most were not capable of managing their troops. The fact is that there was no resistance from the enemy at all; if they had closed off those 12 kilometers, we would have gotten out of that disgraceful situation, but they did not.”

Everything was filmed; it’s no secret. In total, during the war, 40 individuals from the tank brigade and about 50 from the motorized infantry brigade were killed. There was no order for Lele Tepe; it is located 9-10 km away from Kyand-Horadiz; it would have remained in the back if the operation had succeeded. There is a second recording concerning me, stating that I conducted some operation and we suffered significant casualties, 172 individuals were also captured. I am sending this in the same way to the NSS; it may be possible to find these people and understand who the author of that is.

There are Turkish scouts in general’s uniforms whose mission is to create panic among the people. What they did in the battlefield, they did, and now they have transitioned to civilian life. I call for the arrest of those claiming the number 700; where did they hear this? And we will visually see where that chain leads and who those Turkish scouts are in Armenia.