On November 17, the burial of the soldiers who died in Nagorno-Karabakh took place at the Yerevan military cemetery. Lieutenant General of the Armenian Army Movses Akopyan accused the country’s leadership and the army of lies and grave mistakes in the conduct of mobilization and military procurement, lack of strategy and tactics during an hour and a half press conference on Thursday. He also spoke about desertion and problems with conscription in the active army. Akopyan also spoke about the conflict with Prime Minister Pashinyan’s wife and the subsequent ban on the general’s entry into Karabakh. The prime minister’s press secretary called the allegations absurd and urged law enforcement to take action.
In Armenia, the protests and intense discussions caused by the defeat in the Karabakh war continue for the tenth day. In 44 days of fighting, the Armenian Armed Forces lost over 2300 soldiers and control of significant territory. Society demands answers from politicians, while they accuse each other of treason and make sensational statements.
On Wednesday, Major General Akopyan resigned from his post as head of the Control Service of the Armenian Ministry of Defense. His resume includes positions as Chief of the General Staff of the country and Commander of the Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). The reason for the dismissal, according to the general, was Nikol Pashinyan’s post on Facebook, in which he called on frontline soldiers to “solve the problems of the grumblers under the walls”. Many saw this as a call for retribution against the protesters and a call for civil war, and the prime minister’s status was followed by resignations in the government and the departure of deputies from his faction. Pashinyan has rejected this interpretation.
Celebrations in Baku, protests in Yerevan. The first 24 hours after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Akopyan said that the messages of the Armenian Armed Forces Information Center throughout the war gave false information about the course of the hostilities and caused a deep crisis. “The lie should not exceed 30% of reality, but our lie exceeded 100%,” said the general. Many Armenian media and politicians expressed similar sentiments, noting that the Armenian authorities continue to deny the loss of the cities, despite the fact that they have long been out of their control. After the war, the government justified its strategy by saying that it was necessary to mislead the enemy during the war. As the main reason for the defeat, the general cited mistakes in the management of the army. He criticized his successor, Lieutenant General Artak Davtyan, blaming him for the collapse of the army and calling him “the most unprepared general”. Davtyan has not yet responded to his predecessor’s accusations.
Where do the Israeli weapons in Nagorno-Karabakh come from? As an example of mistakes, Akopyan mentioned a secret order according to which five regiments were reduced. At the same time, according to the military, the operational (i.e. bureaucratic) unit of the army was increased by 98%. Akopyan also criticized military purchases – for example, the purchase of anti-aircraft missile systems “Osa AK”, which, according to him, did not shoot down a single drone. Instead, the general called for the purchase of new Russian complexes “Tor” as necessary. This is likely to be a reference to the scandalous pre-war delivery of several dozen upgraded Osa AK SAM systems from Jordan, as reported by leading industry publication Jane’s Defense Weekly.
Protests have taken place in Armenia demanding the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan. This information was confirmed by sources close to the Armenian authorities, according to the BBC. They questioned the motivation behind the purchase of relatively old systems from third countries, when Armenia can purchase modern air defense systems directly from Russia. Akopyan criticized the purchase of new Russian Su-30 SM fighter jets and stated that he opposed the deal. According to him, Armenia would not be able to use the fighters because there are no missiles for them – allegedly Russia prohibits their sale. Several observers have questioned this information: Russia supplies Su-30 fighters to many foreign countries.
Armenia’s military defeat in Karabakh unleashed a wave of anger and despair in Yerevan. Those interviewed by the BBC did not confirm this information either, saying that there may have been logistical problems with the delivery of certain ammunition, but that there was no such ban. In addition, Akopyan mentioned serious problems with the mobilization of reservists, allegedly halted by Pashinyan’s order, who instead sent volunteers to the front. He also mentioned about 1500 deserters from the Armenian forces already on the fifth day of the war. According to the general, they were gathered in Karabakh and were not allowed to return to Armenia to avoid panic. The problem of desertion in the Armenian army was addressed by the Russian “Novaya Gazeta” in an article that caused outrage in Armenia – one of the publication’s sources left the front under unclear circumstances. Following the publication of an article, the Armenian Foreign Ministry revoked the accreditation of the newspaper’s correspondent, Ilya Azar; the authorities of the unrecognized NKR demanded that the material be removed. The general also told about an episode that happened during the war. According to him, he asked the wife of Prime Minister Anna Akopyan to leave the command post in Karabakh – in order, he said, to prevent the tense men from accidentally swearing in her presence. The Prime Minister’s wife agreed, but then, according to the general, he was summoned to Yerevan, where the Minister of Defense handed him a ban on returning to Karabakh, which was issued by Pashinyan. The general said that he wrote a text message to the prime minister asking him to send it to Karabakh, but the latter did not read his message.
The Turkish Bayraktar TB2 attack drone demonstrated how effective drones can be in modern warfare. “Russia has fully fulfilled all its obligations to Armenia, providing it with all the necessary weapons, ‘even those that were beyond our dreams,'” Akopyan said. He accused the Armenian Prime Minister of not asking the Russian President for help until September 30 (that is, until the third day of the war). The general also stated that the Armenian military managed to disrupt the operation of the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, which are in service with the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, for four days using the latest Russian radio-electronic warfare complex “Pole-21”. There have been no previous reports of the use of “Pole-21”. Information has surfaced about the use of another advanced Russian electronic warfare system, “Krasukha,” but there has been no confirmation.
Pashinyan considers all accusations against him unfounded and fabricated. Another interesting revelation of the general – according to his words, Armenia used the Russian operational-tactical missile system “Iskander-E”. Last week this information was confirmed by a BBC source in the Armenian government. Mane Gevorgyan, the press secretary of the Prime Minister of Armenia, said that law enforcement agencies should deal with the general’s statements. She added that Pashinyan considers all accusations against Akopyan “fabricated and absurd. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General of Armenia sent a video recording of the General’s press conference to the Special Investigation Service of Armenia for verification and evaluation of his statements. On Thursday evening, Movses Akopyan announced that he had been invited to the Special Investigation Service, where he was questioned in connection with a press conference and then released home.