During Pashinyan’s rule, no head of the State Security Service has served as long as the law

Since these days, talks, wishes and positions about the possible release or necessity of RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and RA Armed Forces Chief of Staff Eduard Asryan have been directly or indirectly thrown into the field from governmental and quasi-governmental circles, accordingly, we consider it necessary to draw attention to an episode that we did not address with this legislative emphasis.

And so.

RA: of the constitution Article 155 stipulates that “The highest military official of the armed forces is the chief of the general staff, at the recommendation of the Prime Minister means President of the Republic: for the period defined by law”.

2017 adopted “On Defense” RA of the law Article 16 states that: «The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces is appointed for a period of five years. The same person cannot be appointed to the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces more than twice in a row.”

Now let’s see if this requirement of the law has been kept after the change of government in 2018.

On October 3, 2016 Movses Hakobyan was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, and? on May 24, 2018 he was relieved of his post.

Moreover, when Nikol Pashinyan about this decision had reported during the government session, he clearly stated. “The decision was made in an atmosphere of mutual agreement.”

At the same time, he announced that Hakobyan would go to another job, and the general immediately was appointed Chief Military Inspector.

Later, in a conversation with journalists, Movses Hakobyan said that for 5 days he demanded from Pashinyan a justification for dismissing him from the position of head of the General Staff.

“I was satisfied with the confirmation of the Prime Minister,” he continued.

In other words, in this case we are dealing with less than 2 years of office, but also mutual agreement. on the one hand, Nikol Pashinyan did not want to work with Movses Hakobyan in the position of head of the General Staff, on the one hand, due to political convenience, on the other hand, he did not leave him without a position and made it clear that as the head of the General Staff, he had no “pretensions” in terms of professionalism, although it was during the time of Movses Hakobyan’s head of the General Staff that the Azerbaijani armed forces had positional improvements in the Nakhijevan sector, which he was responsible for to leave only on Artak Davtyan, who was the commander of the 5th Army Corps at that time.

And on May 24, 2018, he is the head of the RA General Staff appointed general Artak Davtyan, on June 8, 2020 him by Pashinyan’s decision released: Naturally, the reason was not what Pashinyan said – his son’s wedding during the epidemic.

The Chief of the General Staff of a country on the brink of war is not dismissed under such a ridiculous pretext, especially when in 2019, to our knowledge, During the consultations in the General Assembly, the possibility of a war was also highly assessed, it was even mentioned that the next war will be more large-scale than the April 2016 war. Moreover, Davtyan had this idea on one occasion said also during the interview given to Satik Seyranyan.

In other words, there was a more serious reason, and it is possible that it was Artak Davtyan who wanted to leave at that moment.

And if his military abilities were not suitable for that position, then why did Nikol Pashinyan return him to the same position again?

We will come back to this later. And in this case, too, there is a fact of a term of office less than that specified in the law, officially without serious justification.

And on June 8, 2020 He is appointed to the position of the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan. A month after this, the July battles begin, and after that, the 44-day war.

By the way, in 2023 “many factors were taken into account”. why Pashinyan didn’t appoint Onik Gasparyan as the head of the General Assembly in 2018″ analysis published, where we presented interesting episodes.

And how will 2021 be? on March 18 from the position of head of the General Directorate get rid of Onik Gasparyan, we remember by right. And this after 2021 On February 25, the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces demanded the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan and his government team. Pashinyan called this an attempted military coup and tried to see internal and external interference in it, although it is not excluded that there are external factors in the removal of Onik Gasparyan.

Let’s remind that on November 17, 2020, Onik Gasparyan announced in his address that on the 4th day of the 2020 war, at the session of the Council of Ministers suggested “within two or three days, it is necessary to take measures to stop the war, otherwise, in the case of combat operations of 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.”

But Pashinyan not only did not deal with this proposal at that time, but later he did not immediately deny the declassification of Onik Gasparyan, nor did he think about getting rid of him, he remembered this only after the famous statement of the General Secretary. Maybe it was needed. And Onik Gasparyan doesn’t manage to serve full 2 ​​years in the position of head of the General Directorate.

And Nikol Pashinyan decides on March 22, 2021 to return Artak Davtyan to the position of the head of the General Directorate for the second time.

This, in fact, was beneficial to the RA armed forces at that moment, perhaps also to Onik Gasparyan, because there was a “guarantee” that there would be no drastic personnel changes, and, in fact, there were none. And when such a problem was raised, according to the news that reached us, Artak Davtyan decided to leave: 2022 he was released on February 24 From the position of the head of the General Directorate. And in fact at the same time a number of personnel changes are done.

And after the dismissal of Artak Davtyan, until July 14, 2022, the General Staff is managed by the acting head, and on July 14, 2022 He is the head of the General Staff appointed Edward Asryan. We strongly doubt whether he will remain in this position for 5 years, as stipulated by the “Defence” law.

What happens when Nikol Pashinyan was in power, none of the chiefs of the General Staff, already in office or appointed, served for 5 years, and were dismissed without a clear official justification, that is, based on Pashinyan’s political whim.

Moreover, on one occasion voluminous study We presented that Pashinyan, criticizing the army of the former, violating the requirement of the constitution, that «The highest military official of the armed forces is the Chief of the General Staff”, changed the army management model and made the head of the General Staff the Deputy Minister of Defense, going back about 20 years, although at that time the Chief of the General Staff was considered the first deputy of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, which is not the case in this case.

In other words, as we wrote in the analysis mentioned above, until 2008 and even until a certain part of 2008, the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces was considered the first deputy of the RA Defense Minister. We can see this, Colonel Generals Mikael Harutyunyan, Seyran Ohanyan and: Yuri Khachaturov in the biographies and the relevant decrees of the President.

In particular, in 2008 President Serzh Sargsyan on April 14 by decree Seyran Ohanyan was released From the position of First Deputy Minister of Defense of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces.

Another one by decree 2008 Yuri Khachaturov was appointed on April 15 First Deputy Minister of Defense of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces.

It is another matter that in 2008 After Serzh Sargsyan assumed the post of president on April 9, certain reforms and structural changes were implemented, as a result of which the head of the General Staff ceased to be the first deputy of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, which was, in fact, the right decision.

And already in 2009 President Serzh Sargsyan of January 31 by decree colonel general Yuri Khachaturov was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia getting rid of From the position of First Deputy Minister of Defense of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces.

In other words, Nikol Pashinyan canceled this important decision made in 2009 during the reign of Serzh Sargsyan, and not only this one, which we have also referred to.

As for the term of office of the Heads of the General Staff under the previous ones, they served for quite a long time, there were extensions of the term.

For example, Yuri Khachaturov was appointed on January 31, 2009 Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, then the President of the Republic of Armenia by decree From July 30, 2013 to May 1, 2017, his tenure is extended. That is another question after He is released from the position of head of the General Staff 2016 on October 3.

By the way, if we look in 1997 and 2008 on November 27 accepted RA Laws “On Defense”, in fact, there is no clear term of office of the head of the General Staff, as 2017 adopted “On Defense” RA in the law:

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