Why Suren Papikyan Was Awarded the 'Garegin Nzhdeh' Medal

The newspaper 'Hraparak' reports that Suren Papikyan, who has been appointed Minister of Defense, was awarded the 'Garegin Nzhdeh' medal of the Armed Forces of Armenia in 2016. According to the official website of the Ministry of Defense, the 'Garegin Nzhdeh' medal is awarded to:

1. Officers and sub-officers who have made significant contributions to military construction and patriotic education in the combat training of the Armed Forces of Armenia.
2. Servicemen who have demonstrated personal courage in defending the borders of the homeland during their conscription and neutralizing threats to the lives of servicemen.
3. Individuals who have made significant contributions to the establishment and strengthening of the Armenian army.

These are the criteria under which an individual can be awarded the 'Garegin Nzhdeh' medal if at least one condition is met. As noted, this medal is awarded to officers and sub-officers who have significantly contributed to military preparations and patriotic education. However, it is worth noting that Suren Papikyan is neither a sub-officer nor, moreover, an officer, hence this point cannot apply to him.

The second point refers to demonstrating courage during conscription service, defending the homeland's borders, and neutralizing threats to servicemen's lives. Papikyan received the medal in 2016, while he completed his conscription service approximately 10 years prior. Additionally, his military service was not without incident; he attacked his commander with a knife and was sentenced to one year in prison, being released in 2007 under an amnesty.

The third point concerns making a significant contribution to the establishment of the Armenian army; however, it is clear that Suren Papikyan could not have made a substantial contribution in this regard, as he served in a Russian military unit and did not serve in the Armenian army after being discharged.

This raises questions about the merit for which Papikyan was awarded this high honor in 2016. Notably, he studied at the postgraduate program of St. Petersburg State University from 2012 to 2016, meaning he was not in Armenia during that time to contribute significantly to military construction. His official biography does not indicate the circumstances under which he received the medal, and there is no available information in public sources regarding the specific act for which he was honored.

We attempted to clarify with the Ministry of Defense, but it seems the ministry's press office has not been operational for some time, so our calls went unanswered. According to our sources, Papikyan received the medal for participating in the April Four-Day War, more accurately, not for the war itself but for the post-war phase of it. The 'QP Brigade,' which included Suren Papikyan, was dispatched to the Defense Army on May 14, 2016, approximately 40 days after the end of the war in Artsakh. They carried out engineering work in the community of Jankatag in the Martakert region, which involved digging trenches. It should be noted that Jankatag is also 36 km away from the border.

At one point, the then Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan spoke about this: 'During the April War and afterward, many volunteer units went to support the army because there was an urgent need to quickly complete the positions. As for the unit led by Nikol Pashinyan, they did not participate in direct combat operations during the April war; they were involved in engineering support work. That does not count as participation in combat operations. The military command assessed the engineering work, and a certificate was issued by me.'

We were informed that Papikyan's 'Garegin Nzhdeh' medal was awarded specifically for digging trenches or participating in engineering work. Thus, it appears that the former administration, which is so reviled by Nikol Pashinyan, considered Suren Papikyan's trench-digging as 'participation in military construction' and even awarded a medal, while Pashinyan isolated generals and former soldiers from the war and accused them, slandering them, for the defeat in the war. Moreover, he declared that representatives of the opposition (Gagik Tsarukyan, Arthur Vanetsyan, ARF) who formed battalions to participate in the war 'ran away from the battlefield, are deserters, and traitors.' Meanwhile, medals were awarded to those who dug trenches for a few weeks in Artsakh as members of the 'QP Brigade.' Incidentally, Ararat Mirzoyan, Ruben Rubinyan, and others were also honored with certificates from the Ministry of Defense during that same period.