Arshak Karapetyan's Visit to Artsakh Followed by Dismissal, Hakob Badalyan

Arshak Karapetyan played some kind of game, or did he become a scapegoat? Political analyst Hakob Badalyan made such a statement on his Facebook page.

“Questions, questions: What is the level of accountability for the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces? Is Arshak Karapetyan's dismissal a result or a reason? For instance, years ago, during a period when the number of deaths in the army had significantly increased—not from enemy fire—a logical question arose as to why all criticisms and demands were directed solely at Minister Ohanyan and not also at Chief of Staff Khachaturov. Similarly, there is a question now, because the direct management of the armed forces is the responsibility of the Chief of General Staff. Or are the issues in the political arena? The public is unlikely to get answers to these questions, or will receive them through various media leaks, making it extremely difficult to assess what is real and what is fabricated.

It may be worth noting a certain chronological sequence, possibly two parallels. On November 6, Arshak Karapetyan visited Artsakh, marking the first visit by a high-ranking Armenian military-political official in ten months. The last one was the visit of Foreign Minister Ayvazyan in early January 2021, which was followed by a harsh response from Baku and a ten-month hiatus. Accordingly, that visit itself raised a question of what has changed, why is Armenia challenging Baku, or is Russia doing this through Armenia?

This visit was followed by the assassination on November 8 near Shushi. Later, there was a somewhat strange act of ‘retaliation’. Alongside this, tensions have been rising along the borders. In all this, did Arshak Karapetyan play some kind of game, or did he become a scapegoat? Another point is that the increase in tensions along the borders is occurring after the meeting of co-chairs and foreign ministers in Paris. Therefore, is Baku unhappy with that meeting and with the co-chairs, or is it displeased with Ankara?” he wrote.