«How Could I Not Initiate, Not Only Would I Not, But I Would Slay on the Spot» - «Hraparak»

«Hraparak» newspaper writes: «Two days ago, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made another barefaced statement regarding the army while speaking about the fight against corruption at the Anti-Corruption Committee, which many interpret as another attempt to discredit the military. He said: ‘Every time we go to solve any issue, we see that the tool for solving that issue is either lacking or the template of that tool exists, but there is no so-called catalyst inside it, as we encountered during the war, when it turned out that, say, from missiles with terrifying names, there might be plates inside, which contain gold.’

Former Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, General-Major Movses Hakobyan, in response to our question about whether it is theoretically possible for such a thing to happen, that the 'plates' (microchips) are removed from missiles because they contain gold, replied: ‘Any missile that has a plate is checked in a laboratory, and it is known if the plate is removed or not. That is to say, I do not think that on the day of using them, they were unaware of it. But I cannot comment on anything because I do not want to comment on him at all.’

He then noted that if we follow what Nikol Pashinyan said, we see that his goal is to justify the defeat and to condemn the army. ‘He says this for that purpose. If such a thing has happened, let him write about it, let a criminal case be initiated against the guilty parties,’ said General-Major Movses Hakobyan.

Mr. Hakobyan, if Pashinyan does not say this, does it mean that his statements are barefaced? Yes. Please tell me the number of the criminal case for that statement and check with the Prosecutor's Office whether a criminal case has been initiated about what the Prime Minister said or not. He will say, ‘I said they could have been removed.’ I am not a politician; politics is prostitution for me. Should I interpret this now? And, interestingly, where are those ‘plates’ usually located? Can a regular soldier dismantle those missiles and take out the ‘plates’ without anyone seeing that he is stealing the ‘plate’ from inside the missiles? No, it can only be done by a specialist. It is not easy to do, and it is also not easy to know that there is gold in them. I, for example, did not know. Where is the gold located in them or what is its volume for which they would steal them? Gold is used everywhere. But the volumes are very small; people just decided… And previously, when you were in charge of the army, have there been any cases where soldiers tried to steal any parts from our weapons and ammunition or damage military property? I haven’t encountered such cases; I haven’t initiated such a criminal case. Hasn't it happened? No, it hasn’t happened; I haven’t encountered it that there would be, how could I not initiate it, not only would I not, but I would slay on the spot.»