“Not marking it, in my opinion, was not right”: Tigran Khachaturyan on the 30th anniversary of the Armenian army

Former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Tigran Khachaturyan believes that it was incorrect to ignore the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Armenian army. In an interview with NEWS.am, he stated that he was also invited to the event dedicated to Army Day, but did not participate. “Not marking it, in my opinion, was not right,” he said.

When asked about the current state of the army, he evaded answering, noting that it is inappropriate to speak about the army's condition at this time, and he is also not informed as he is no longer working in the system.

Regarding the authorities' statements about the mirrored withdrawal of troops, he expressed a very negative view. “I have a very negative attitude towards the idea of mirrored withdrawal. When the enemy has invaded our sovereign territory, what kind of mirrored withdrawal are we talking about? I don’t understand their logic and the sequence of steps. If the troops are being withdrawn, then according to that logic, they could withdraw all the way to the center of Yerevan,” he said.

It should be noted that back in May 2021, ahead of the early parliamentary elections, Nikol Pashinyan brought up the idea of mirrored withdrawal of troops during an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, at a time when Azerbaijani armed forces had invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia on May 12, 2021, and occupied various positions. To this day, they continue to remain on Armenian sovereign territory.