Serzh Sargsyan supported Onik Gasparyan’s proposal to stop the war.

In his speech at the 18th congress of the RPA, the third president of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, did not avoid the topic of the April 2016 military operations and the war in general.

He first remembered whether to recognize Artsakh or not on April 4, 2016 His meeting with the ambassadors of the OSCE member states.

“The Republic of Armenia, as a party to the 1994 Armistice Agreement, will continue to fully fulfill its duties of ensuring the safety of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. Moreover, I instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work towards signing a military mutual aid agreement with Nagorno Karabakh. And here I must mention that I have stated more than once that if, indeed, the military operations continue and become large-scale, the Republic of Armenia will recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh.”  Serzh Sargsyan warned the ambassadors of the OSCE member states.

Why the de jure Artsakh-Armenia strategic alliance plan was not implemented is a separate topic for discussion. Moreover, similar discussions also happened after the change of power in 2018, when at almost the same time Nikol Pashinyan announced: “Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it.”

And Serzh Sargsyan explained during the congress why they did not recognize the independence of Artsakh de jure.

“In 2008, Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the internal political disputes in Armenia, launched a diplomatic attack and passed a resolution contradicting the Madrid principles in the UN General Assembly. All OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries voted against that resolution. It also did not receive the support of the European Union member states. And then we We conveyed to the co-chairing countries of the Minsk Group that Armenia will recognize the independence of Artsakh Republic in two cases. firstly, if there is a long-term, large-scale war, secondly, if the co-chairs of the Minsk Group do not encourage Azerbaijani diplomatic encroachments to move the resolution of the Artsakh issue to another platform, including the UN General Assembly. When the rulers of Armenia speculate, my response to this question is simple: Apart from these two occasions, the recognition of Artsakh would in itself lead to the isolation of Armenia from the international community and a large-scale war. There was no large-scale war during the previous era, thanks to our combative army and our effective diplomatic work, therefore, the negotiation process was not put under attack.

Under them, the war of 2020 was already on a large scale, had disastrous consequences and was stopped by a cowardly populist and dragged out for 44 days to avoid being called a traitor.

I ask a question, if all these factors were present – a large-scale and long-lasting war, which, despite mediation efforts, did not stop, then why did you not recognize Artsakh, and what could have happened after that? And when such claims are made from outside that you didn’t even recognize, what do you want from us? But the participants of the negotiation process are still there, didn’t they know that we agreed with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group not to rush, not to provoke a war, not to fail the work of the OSCE Minsk Group?”

In other words, Serzh Sargsyan says, and perhaps makes it clear, that one cannot violate the political and diplomatic agreements, that although they negotiated the right to self-determination of Artsakh, they did not recognize Artsakh’s independence, because they promised that they would not do so unless there was a large-scale war. Here we are talking about what Aliyev did during the 44-day period had accused Nikol Pashinyan, that “Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it” was outside the “elevator agreements”.

In this context, let’s go back to the days of April combat operations in 2016 and recall one episode as proof of Serzh Sargsyan’s other thought expressed at the congress, that the army and diplomacy complemented each other.
on April 3, 2016 with military attachés of embassies of foreign countries accredited in RA meeting at that time Davit Tonoyan clearly stated. “The Armenian side is ready for any development, if necessary, up to direct military support for NKR defense.”

Meanwhile, after the 44-day war 168.amin a conversation with former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ara Ayvazyan had confessed that the connection between the army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not working well.

“There should be complementarity. But power structures, security and diplomacy, especially in a country like ours, must work together and coordinate. This trinity – security-army-ministery of foreign affairs, must exist“, he continued.

On one occasion we we have touched on military leadership and those responsible for foreign policy and the dose of responsibility for diplomacy, the army alone cannot answer for the defeat.

And Serzh Sargsyan, in the part of his speech at the 18th congress of the RPA, essentially indirectly supported the proposal made by the former head of the RA Armed Forces General Onik Gasparyan to Pashinyan at the session of the Council of Ministers on the 4th day of the war.

It should be noted that Colonel-General Onik Gasparyan in 2020 In his message of November 17, he disclosed an important episode, detailing:

“The fourth day of the war During the security council meeting, I presented our losses and the armed forces’ assessment of the situation noting that within two or three days it is necessary to take measures to stop the war, otherwise in the case of combat operations conducted at this intensity, our resources will be exhausted in a short period of time and we will have more unfavorable conditions for the negotiation process in the following days.

I have presented similar assessments many times during my round-the-clock work with the Prime Minister. as well as in the meetings of the Security Council”.

Then General Onik Gasparyan continued in his address.

“All attempts and proposals to stop the war at a certain stage have been rejected by Turkey and Azerbaijan. and: we have been forced to continue fighting`trying the enemy to cause great losses and to force to sit at the negotiation table”.

Despite our human, military-technical and territorial losses on the first day of the war, on the basis of this proposal of Onik Gasparyan, as on one occasion we wrote in fact, first of all, the geopolitical situation, the attitude of allies and partners towards us and our diplomatic abilities were taken into account.

In other words, the head of the General Directorate warned: every single day will work against the negotiation process. 

The army was able to resist for 44 days, for better or for worse, even, according to our information, the General Staff had under its eye the possibility of the war continuing for a few more days. There is also a remarkable episode here. Aliyev after the war admitted that it was in Azerbaijan’s interest to stop the war on November 9 to avoid heavy losses.

When we make certain comparisons between the actions of the state and the authorities during the April war and the 44-day war, it does not mean at all that before 2016 and after, there were no undone or delayed actions, including those related to the army, of course there were. This does not mean that we consider the circulated thesis that “Lele Tepe” was not a height of strategic importance to be correct, no. Another question is whether the current government, which handed over Karvachar, Aghdam, and Lachin, held by the army during the 44-day war, to Azerbaijan with the stroke of a pen, has the right to make this topic a banner, during whose reign the strategic heights of Armenia also came under the control of Azerbaijan, and they are unlikely to retreat from there.

By the way, the question whether we won the April war or…

On the plane returning from Vienna in April 2016, given to Armenian TV stations in the interview Serzh Sargsyan honestly answered that question. In particular, he said that he could use the word “victory” to summarize the events of April, but the most correct wording is “The armed forces fulfilled the task set before them, failing the enemy’s plan to break through and destroy the Armenian front.”

And in the meeting with journalists in August 2020, almost in the same logic had said that during the four-day meeting, Azerbaijan could not achieve the military-political and military overarching goal set before it, which was to change the course of the negotiations.

It should be noted that the April combat operations were followed by the agreements of Vienna and Saint Petersburg, which Nikol Pashinyan’s authorities put aside. And the topic of the April war did not escape Baku either “trial” time, and Levon Mnatsakanyan, the former commander of the Defense Forces, had the courage to declare in court: “During the April War, the Defense Force was not the attacking side.” And has Nikol Pashinyan ever directly accused Putin of organizing the April war, which he did remotely, is a question…

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