Opinion: Armen Grigoryan and those like him have made Armenia’s security and territorial integrity a subject of bargaining

Arminfo.  People like former Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan and those similar to him made Armenia’s security and territorial integrity a subject of bargaining. Former Armenian parliament member Tigran Abrahamyan made this comment on Grigoryan’s reflections on the 2016 four-day war in one of his interviews.

He stated that, between the lines of his interview, the former Security Council secretary revealed the scenario of the April war, which had been planned with the participation of Azerbaijan, certain external forces and, possibly, internal interested circles.

"According to this, during the April war, Azerbaijan was supposed to seize such regions of Artsakh as would make it possible to ensure capitulation not in 2020, during Pashinyan’s rule, but in 2016, during Serzh Sargsyan’s tenure in power.  This would have made it possible not only to accelerate their coming to power by two years, but also to link the capitulation of Artsakh to the previous authorities, while they themselves, taking advantage of the situation, would enjoy power "with white gloves"", Abrahamyan noted.

The opposition figure regretted that Armen Grigoryan, his associates and those who instructed them had, unfortunately, fulfilled their long-standing dream: they surrendered Artsakh, are implementing the interests of others in the Republic of Armenia, and made the country’s security and territorial integrity a subject of bargaining.

"Nevertheless, they know perfectly well that the stigma of traitors to the homeland will accompany them forever, and therefore they are trying  to confuse the issue with disjointed Azerbaijani narratives.

I can imagine the pain and disappointment experienced by people like them when, during the April four-day war, Azerbaijani formations were routed on the approaches to Yegn ikner, Mataghis, Martakert, Aghdam and Jabrayil, and the planned conspiracy was thwarted", Abrahamyan concluded.

On the night of April 2, 2016, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched a large-scale military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh.

The war was accompanied by war crimes, gross violations of the laws and customs of war, as well as the norms of international humanitarian law.

At the time, the April military actions were considered the largest-scale hostilities since the ceasefire agreement of May 1994. During the fighting from April 2 to 5, all Armenian military units, including artillery, tank and anti-tank units, performed exceptionally well.

During the intense fighting, units of the Artsakh Defense Army destroyed 2 Azerbaijani helicopters attacking the positions of the Armenian side, 26 tanks, as well as 14 drones, 1 BM-21 multiple rocket launcher ("Grad"), 4 infantry fighting vehicles and 1 engineering vehicle.

During the hostilities along the line of contact, the Armenian side lost 64 servicemen, 13 volunteers and 4 civilians; more than 120 people were wounded, while another 9 servicemen died after the active phase of the hostilities had ended, in the period up to April 13, and several more died later in hospitals.

Based on State Department data presented in Vienna on May 16 of the same year, it became clear that, in addition to the 81 losses on the Armenian side, around 270 Azerbaijanis were killed. At the same time, analysts from the international investigative group Bellingcat estimated Baku’s losses at 400-500 soldiers killed.