In the anti-corruption court, presided over by judge Sargis Petrosyan, on November 5, 2008. in the context of the events of March 1, the court session continued in the case of the second president of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, the former head of the Armed Forces General Yuri Khachaturov, the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan and the former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan.

The scope of the evidence to be examined was discussed in court. The public prosecutor requested to interrogate in court in 2008. to the witnesses regarding the events of February-March, who are mainly officials and servicemen of various departments. In particular, among them is the former head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Colonel-General Onik Gasparyan.

We referred to the testimony of Onik Gasparyan on March 1, “Many factors were taken into account”. why Pashinyan didn’t appoint Onik Gasparyan as the head of the General Assembly in 2018″ in the article.

Moreover, Onik Gasparyan, who headed the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces during the 44-day period, testified. On August 2, 2018, and was cross-examined on October 29, 2018.

We have presented several noteworthy episodes in our analysis above.

Not yet On May 24, 2018 and even before that, the press had written that Onik Gasparyan would be appointed head of the State Security Service, and one of the first writers about this was Pashinyan’s family newspaper: “Armenian Time”.

The corresponding article was written May 24, 2018 at 1:30 p.m: However, later it became known that Pashinyan decided to entrust this position to Artak Davtyan. Pashinyan announced the information to the public on Facebook by post 2018 on May 24 at 9:40 p.m.

And General Gasparyan? On June 18, 2018 reappointed In the position of First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Let’s remind that he was appointed to the position of deputy chief of the RA Armed Forces General Staff On July 7, 2016, and on June 15, 2017, first deputy.

Onik Gasparyan, head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, was appointed 2020 on June 8.

By the way, before the appointment on June 8, 2020, the press about the appointment of Onik Gasparyan to the position of the head of the General Staff during Pashinyan’s government had written also in 2019.

And generally similar information had begun to circulate even under the previous authorities, in 2017, that Onik Gasparyan will replace Movses Hakobyan as the head of the General Staff, perhaps, taking into account the fact that when Vigen Sargsyan was the Minister of Defense, Onik Gasparyan, as the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, participated in the development of the new seven-year plan for the modernization of the army.

As to why Pashinyan did not appoint Onik Gasparyan to the position of head of the General Directorate earlier, we can make various assumptions, including taking into account his testimony related to the events of March 1st, which the “Zhoghovurd” daily published in full 2 ​​days after his appointment as the head of the General Directorate had published. 

“On the night of March 1-2, I don’t remember the exact time, someone I don’t remember approached me and informed me that General Yu. Khachaturov is waiting for me. I hastened to his office, where there were many officers, but I do not remember who they were, and he introduced me to a lieutenant colonel or colonel of a traffic policeman, whose name I do not even remember, and told me to follow him and stand behind the internal troops. He didn’t tell me anything more than that, and when I wanted to leave, he told me that he was conveying the Prime Minister’s words about not forgetting that our brothers and sisters are standing in front of us.” mentioned in Onik Gasparyan’s testimony.

During the interrogation in the March 1 case, Onik Gasparyan was asked: “Did you receive the right to give the order to fire in advance from the superior leadership or not? Specifically, after your order, only the personnel of the 4th MC fired, or did your order, as a senior officer’s order, apply to the Artanish troop or another unit as well?”

The general answered this question.

“I did not issue such an order. While I was still in Nubarashen, but I don’t remember the exact day, I said during a conversation with my subordinates that we are unlikely to have any special problems, but we may have a problem of shooting into the air in case of extreme necessity. I said this on my own initiative, I did not receive such information from the superior management in advance. While I was on Paronyan Street, I reaffirm that I did not give such an order to anyone and I did not receive such an order from the superior leadership, that is, I mean from the staff of the head of the Yerevan Garrison, or from the General Directorate of General Staff.

Rebuttal: “In your initial testimony, you stated that on March 1, only Yu. After entering Khachaturov, you realized that you should move with your staff to Leo Street, after that to Paronyan Street and position yourself behind the police barricade. In that case, I suggest you clarify what made you doubt that the maximum that can be done is to shoot into the air…”.

Onik Gasparyan answered this question in his testimony.

«Since I was informed from the beginning that it is possible to get involved in the protection of state objects, that’s why the meaning of my speech was precisely that, and I meant that if the objects entrusted to us are attacked by protesters, the most we can do to repel them is to shoot in the air.”

The testimony of the former head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces on March 1 is quite voluminous, but Onik Gasparyan behaved like a dignified officer and did not testify against anyone, in fact.

It should be noted that on March 1, 2008, he held the position of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Army Corps of the RA Ministry of Defense.

Let’s also remind that Onik Gasparyan was removed from the position of the head of the General Assembly by force of law, in the 2021 General Assembly. after the famous statement of February 25, which Pashinyan considered an attempted military coup, which has nothing to do with reality. And Gasparyan is very likely to have interesting facts related to the 44-day war submitted the publicity of which may not be beneficial to Pashinyan.

Let us add that the list of witnesses in the case of March 1 also includes the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the RA Armed Forces General Staff, Major General Temur Shahnazaryan, who signed Pashinyan’s resignation statement under the General Staff statement. In the list of witnesses there is even a name of the commander who died in the 44-day war.

Like the interrogations of the military in the case of March 1 after the change of power, so today, they cannot but affect the attitude, mood and activity of the armed forces.

Nikol Pashinyan put the full responsibility for the defeat in the 44-day war on the army, military leadership and the military, now another wave of pressure is about to start on the army, retired and active high-ranking and non-high-ranking military personnel.