General Seyran Ohanyan on the Arrest of Mikayel Arzumanyan and the Charges Filed

It is not news to the public of Armenia that the actions of this government are a theatrical show. This was stated to 24News by Seyran Ohanyan, a member of the 'Armenia' coalition, a key military figure during the liberation of Shusha in the 1990s, and a general lieutenant, commenting on the charges brought against the former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, advisor to the President of Artsakh, General-Lieutenant Mikayel Arzumanyan.

On August 30, the Investigative Committee of Armenia issued a statement that Mikayel Arzumanyan, the former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army and advisor to the President of Artsakh, was arrested for official negligence in organizing the defense of the city of Shusha and the surrounding areas during the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

“On August 30, 2022, charges were brought against M.A. under part 3 of Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, adopted on April 18, 2003 (corresponding to part 3 of Article 550 of the current Criminal Code of Armenia, which is military official negligence). Due to the necessity of choosing detention as a precautionary measure against the accused M.A., a decision was made on the same day to arrest him,” Ohanyan noted.

According to Seyran Ohanyan, without encircling, “Mikayel Arzumanyan would present himself to the Committee.”

“He is a general who went through a path. The authorities will try to blame everything about the war on the military. Not only the loss of Shusha but also the remaining territories of Artsakh should become subjects of investigation. Instead of the parliamentary inquiry commission on defense and security, we proposed another inquiry commission, which the current authorities did not allow. Every operation was part of the 44-day war, and everyone should be the subject of investigation. But the military and conscripts should not be the only subject; it should be what led to the war. The state leadership did not mobilize all military resources to prevent the Azerbaijanis from coming and reaching Shusha,” he stated.

“The authorities led by Nikol are responsible for disrupting the negotiation process for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, provoking war, doing nothing during the war, encouraging all those guilty during the war, continuing the series of failures after the war, and deceiving into the false agenda of Turkish-Azerbaijani fake peace. The rest are trifles to me,” emphasized the general-lieutenant.

During the 44-day war, Seyran Ohanyan was in Shusha, providing military consulting at that time. “As a volunteer and at the request of the President of Artsakh, I was in Shusha and tried to support within my possibilities. The rest that is being investigated is not an issue. The Shusha operation during the 44-day war is part of negligence. Throughout the war, negligence was displayed by the Armenian authorities, led by Nikol,” concluded General Seyran Ohanyan.