The Doubt Was Indeed Rational as Positions Were Abandoned Without Cause, Says Former NSS Director

When panic began to spread in Artsakh, especially in the positions, there were recorded cases of abandoning positions without objective reasons. This led the country’s political leadership to genuinely express doubts and concerns that these phenomena could have an organized, systematic nature, orchestrated by former political and military circles, even with the goal of discrediting the current authorities. This was stated by former NSS Director Mikhail Hambardzumyan in an interview with News.am, referring to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's announcement at a press conference the previous day, where he declared that we lost the 44-day war because a fifth column was operating within the army.

“That is, there was a suspicion that the fifth column mentioned in your question and the Prime Minister’s press conference was indeed acting. I must say that the aforementioned suspicion expressed by the political leadership was indeed rational, as positions were left without objective reasons. Therefore, we were obliged to immediately carry out verification operations. As a result of activities carried out jointly with our colleagues in Artsakh, the circumstances surrounding the abandonment of positions and the emergence of panic were clarified as much as possible. I will not elaborate on this now, but the panic spreading in an organized manner, having a systematic nature, and the fact that this was being done by individuals associated with the previous authorities was not confirmed, of which, of course, the political leadership was informed. If such data had been received, criminal proceedings would have been initiated immediately,” he said.

The former NSS director did not rule out that new information could emerge regarding the ongoing criminal cases today. “It should be taken into account that about three years have passed since the events, and law enforcement agencies naturally had much more time to engage deeply with this issue. The Prime Minister noted in his aforementioned press conference that relevant data would be published soon, and his statement about the existence of a fifth column should not come as a surprise. In my opinion, it is very important for the data declared by the Prime Minister regarding the fifth column to be disproven or confirmed, as its existence poses a serious threat to the country, just as it did at the time and still does now.

In the book to be published by the reserve officers of the NSS, which we hope will see the light in May, I have also addressed the aforementioned facts in my memoirs. Therefore, details will be in the book,” he emphasized.