On February 11, the chairman of the “Reformists” party, former deputy of the National Assembly, Vahan Babayan announced that he offered the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, to head the party’s pre-election list.

A month later, on March 12, with Petros Ghazaryan in the interview Nikol Pashinyan’s former adviser stated that he gave his consent and also answered the questions favorable to the government circles, for example, who was ready to hand over Meghri and when.

Meanwhile, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who submitted an application for participation in the elections, should also answer a number of other questions and shed light on some episodes, why not take responsibility? More on this later.

And before that, we should mention that before we offered the former Minister of Defense to give an interview and answer our questions about these election topics, Vagharshak Harutyunyan replied that he is not giving an interview yet, and asked to wait a while, when he decides to give interviews, he will answer our questions first.

We respected his decision and even when it was announced that the former minister could head the “Reformists” electoral list, we did not call him for a comment.

But when we saw that Harutyunyan went to the Public Television, that is, he is already ready to give interviews, we called him and offered to answer our questions, to which the former Minister of Defense stated that he is not giving an interview now, when we reminded him that he answered the government’s questions a few days ago, maybe he is now ready to answer only their questions, he repeated what he said.

We informed Vagharshak Harutyunyan that we will publicize that he refused to answer our questions.

“Yes, I’m not giving an interview, that’s it,” he responded.

And what questions should the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia answer?

First, Nikol Pashinyan on August 18, 2020 by decision Harutyunyan was appointed his chief adviser. That is, one month before the 44-day war, and, in fact, he was engaged in foreign relations related to the military sphere. To what extent have we succeeded in this matter, since when was it clear that war was imminent?

For example, the former head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan published in June 2023 statement states that taking into account the results of the multi-faceted assessment of the situation created at that time, on July 4, 2020 Nikol Pashinyan was offered to take political and diplomatic measures aimed at preventing war, or at least creating favorable conditions for the use of the RA Armed Forces, as well as drastically improving relations with Russia, Iran and Georgia.

Moreover, in order to dramatically improve relations with our strategic ally Russia, according to the general, he even presented a clear sequence of actions.

Has Pashinyan’s adviser Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who has some negotiation experience, tried to do anything in the Russian direction or not? Or what he did during the war as an adviser to the Prime Minister, why did the system of governance fail?

By the way, Vagharshak Harutyunyan’s close friend Andranik Kocharyan did not invite him to the 44-day investigation commission either.

And after the resignation or release of Davit Tonoyan on November 20, 2020, Harutyunyan was appointed Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

To what extent Pashinyan’s former advisor has been able to work with Russia, one of the parties to the November 9 tripartite declaration, one can perhaps speculate.

On the other hand, let’s not forget that December 2020 is in Azerbaijan give up The Goris-Kapan intersection, when Vagharshak Harutyunyan was the Minister of Defense.

We have not once detailed this topic we have touched on, but let’s recall an episode or two.

Specifically, on December 18, 2020 168.amto the question, there are rumors in the press and social networks that Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan signed a secret contract on the instructions of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. to sign with the Russian side, handing over the protection of the Syunik positions to the Russian border guards, from the military department they explained. «The Minister of Defense cannot sign any document related to the borders of the Republic of Armenia. According to that, the Minister of Defense did not sign, could not sign a document, even a secret one, which refers to the borders of the Republic of Armenia, particularly Syunik”.

As early as August 2024, the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sputnik Armenia to the question whether, after the 44-day Artsakh war, a document was signed with Russia regarding border control on the Goris-Kapan highway, answered. 

“We inform you that A document of this nature was signed between the Ministers of Defense of the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation.”

Besides this, in 2021, Nikol Pashinyan had announced, that He personally gave the order to withdraw the troops in Syunik, and Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan did just that.

But come and see, the same Nikol Pashinyan in November 2025 had announced.

«I have never given any order about the withdrawal of RA troops from any sovereign territory of RA.”

From RA Investigative Committee to 168.am had reported, that no criminal proceedings have been initiated regarding the withdrawal of troops from Syunik, no preliminary investigation is being conducted.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who was the Minister of Defense at that time, who also visited Pashinyan on December 15, 2020 for consultations on the developments related to Syunik to participate, doesn’t have anything to say or explain about all this? And maybe he doesn’t think that an unofficial one-sided border demarcation took place and we gave territory to Azerbaijan, that there was a troop withdrawal, or maybe he thinks that in this way we are preventing an attack against Armenia?

But all this is not the whole thing, when Vagharshak Harutyunyan was the Minister of Defense, in May 2021, Azerbaijan entered the sovereign territory of Armenia, which “facilitated” other advances, and now, when the territories occupied by Armenia have not yet been returned, and on various occasions the issue of their Armenian citizenship is being questioned, when Azerbaijan is strengthening itself in those territories.

Moreover, regarding the May 2021 promotions, former military officials are facing criminal cases, does Vagharshak Harutyunyan still have nothing to say, especially when on one occasion Pashinyan inadvertently confessed, that according to his instructions, the army did not resist the Azerbaijani advances, so that the extraordinary elections of the National Assembly of June 2021 take place.

One month after this, in July 2021, Vagharshak Harutyunyan had resigned from the position he held, at that time, according to the legislation, to acting Minister of Defense.

And now Vagharshak Harutyunyan himself is preparing for the NA elections, without trying to at least address the unanswered questions, to bear his share of responsibility, or can he enter a dangerous border by clashing with Nikol Pashinyan?

—