There is a hypothesis that the war was a staging to surrender territories: Hayk Manasyan

Hayk Manasyan wrote on his Facebook page: “There is a hypothesis, I am not saying it is justified or a reality. But there is a hypothesis that the war was a staging for surrendering the territories: In other words, it was impossible for the Armenian people to come and say that we agreed to surrender the territories, because they would be overthrown as a government. And in order for it to be convincing for the Armenian people, the war was staged, in which we were defeated, the territories were surrendered, and the peacekeeper was forced to enter and save us. We were compelled to promise a road through Syunik, which will not belong to us, but rather to the Russian FSB, that is to say, to Russia.

This hypothesis can be discussed with both confirming and questioning arguments. For example, a confirming argument is that instead of mobilization, a guerrilla movement was staged, and instead of military commissars, village leaders were called upon to form squads, etc. An argument that puts the hypothesis into question is that by the 24th day of the war, one could consider that the surrender and the destruction of our army had already been accomplished, the staging had solved its purpose, and there was no need to resist for another 20 days and continue the war. Or, for instance, it could have been declared that Shushi had fallen and the capitulation could have been signed, rather than deceiving for 3-4 days that the struggle continued, and only surrendering after the news from the president of Artsakh.

But in any case, could our government stage a war or not, depends on another question. The answer to that other question was this: Would our authorities, before the war, sincerely tell the Armenian people that they had surrendered the security zone of Artsakh in negotiations, and were compelled to practically fulfill their given promise? Of course not. The concessions in our positions during negotiations had been a state secret for 20-25 years. It was also a state secret that we were preparing to sign a 'capitulation' document in negotiations. It was a state secret that the revolution was actually a carefully planned selection of personnel for surrendering Artsakh.

Could the previous and current authorities, keeping so many secrets from their own people, stage a war to cover their ineptitude? I believe YES. Although this is merely a hypothesis, yet it is quite a substantiated hypothesis.”