After the government session on November 5, Nikol Pashinyan, referring to the incidents taking place in the army: suicide, attempted suicide, murder, stressed:

“We cannot watch what is happening like an observer and treat what is happening as if it will happen. An explanation is an explanation, but that doesn’t mean that those explanations satisfy us.

My message is clear: I’m not going to put up with that situation, that’s how it will be, and we will continue to record statistics. I gave this message very clearly to my colleagues.”

Before this, while talking about the causes of incidents in the army, Pashinyan tried to prove that the origins of approximately 70 percent of the happenings are not related to the army, at the same time stressing that the officers are to blame, and the RA Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan and the Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces Edward Asryan are obliged to find a solution to this problem.

And despite the public and non-public demands of Suren Papikyan’s resignation by his own and non-own people, Nikol Pashinyan decided to re-appoint him to the position of Minister of Defense in August and then even stated that he was satisfied with the work of the Minister of Defense from his party, or at least not dissatisfied.

Of course, this is a decision made for a specific time, based on various political calculations.

Not long after Suren Papikyan’s reassignment, a case of the death of a serviceman in non-combat conditions was recorded in the army, which was followed by dismissals in the Department of Defense. In addition, by Pashinyan’s decision, in August 2026, an interdepartmental working group was created to develop systemic solutions to the issues of suicides and non-statutory relationships in the armed forces.

But suddenly, on October 6, in an interview with the Ctrl Z Infocom program, Pashinyan announced that he is also responsible for suicides and attempted suicides in the army, of course, also the government, the Minister of Defense, but he rejected the logic that the Minister of Defense should automatically resign due to such incidents.

After this interview, the cases of death of a soldier were again recorded in the armed forces: on October 10 (the body of A. Gh., a soldier of the National Defense Unit N, was found with a gunshot wound) and on October 31 (the body of conscript Tigran Stepanyan was found with a gunshot wound, two servicemen were charged with causing the soldier to commit suicide by negligence).

And after this, Nikol Pashinyan, as we mentioned, announced on November 5 that all kinds of explanations are no longer acceptable, he is not going to put up with the situation in the army. But this time he forgets about his responsibility, which he suddenly remembered after a short time.

It is not excluded that if, God forbid, another case of death of a soldier is recorded, Pashinyan will consider himself guilty and responsible only for reassigning Suren Papikyan and not giving him time and opportunity to solve the problem related to deaths in non-combat conditions in the army. And before that, it is necessary to generate a certain atmosphere around the Ministry of Defense and the minister, especially when there are people who would like to be in that position. We can’t know about everyone.

By the way, there were similar conversations until recently circulated also related to the former Secretary of the Council of Ministers Armen Grigoryan, which were not even directly denied by him, at the presentation of whose book, one of the influential figures of the CP, Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan did not participate.

It is interesting, but with the quote “The illusion of EU membership” by the former Secretary of the Security Council the article and the ideas expressed in it were not received in a negative way by the ruling power, if not to say completely normal. But let’s return to the possible developments surrounding the current defense minister.

Given to ArmLur.am on November 12 in the interview In the context of the events taking place in the army and the resignation of Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan, the former chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly, deputy of the “Civil Agreement” faction, said:

“Justified resignations can defuse polarization, be it in the army or elsewhere. Let’s not forget that Vazgen Sargsyan resigned when the army was targeted. And Vazgen Manukyan came to get the army out of that public target environment, and it was effective. The opposition targeted the army because it could not accept Vazgen Sargsyan. Vazgen stepped aside, that problem was alleviated, and after that the army found itself in the environment of carrying out its plans.

I am not against dismissals, they happened in the armed forces.

Every time we have to approach the problem from the point of view of where to look for the cause and effect connection. Everyone goes to psychologists, they want to see the solutions, but the solution is inside the army, in the relationships in the army. Մարդը, երբ զորակոչվեց բանակ, անցավ պահակային կետը, նա այլևս իր ընտանիքինը չի։

And from that moment on, the army must know what is in this person, is there a disease or not, are there family problems or not? And for two years, the commander must manage this man’s service in such a way that he does not have the problem of ending his life. The dog’s head is buried here.

Now they say that it has happened before, it is too much, it is too little, even one death can have very dangerous developments from the point of view of trust in the army.

Those who deal with army matters should never be separated from the army, and the one who serves in the army should have little free time.

We have a lot of structural things: work with the personnel, full of psychologists will appear, but until the psychological profile of the conscript appears in his personal file, then we still don’t know what is hidden in that soldier.

Now they say: family, sleeping problem, they are easy to solve. The institution of troop watchers was overthrown, and as a result of persistent actions, that problem can be considered solved. But this is “dormant”, it can return again if we are careless. We say that the army is a mirror of society, yes. But the army should be ready to heal a sick child, to make a healthy one healthier, to strengthen a person who does not have a profession, with professional knowledge. It is very important to have a moral code of the army. We called, we did the re-arrangement, then we went to bed… and that’s it, it’s not like that.”

This is said by the same Andranik Kocharyan, who has opposed Suren Papikyan’s resignation on various occasions in recent years, including the fire at the Azat residence. Is the ex-chairman of the National Defense Committee upset with Suren Papikyan, the ministry, Kocharyan avoided the question. On the other hand, in his case, such behavior is not at all surprising.

Let’s remember how Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the 44-day investigative commission, first accused Onik Gasparyan, the former head of the RA Armed Forces General Staff, of approving a shameful plan to use “Iskander”, then when the general went to the investigative commission, Kocharyan’s accusations turned into of diaphragms. 

At the same time, in his public speech in the context of the 44-day war, Andranik Kocharyan also tried To solve some problems within the framework of his political interests at that time “through” Onik Gasparyan, including: save Nikol Pashinyan.

It is also not a new thing that the former chairman of the National Defense Committee sees the de-escalation of the military, military-political and even political situation related to the army through the resignation of the Minister of Defense.

Days after the end of the 44-day war in 2020. On November 17, Andranik Kocharyan announced. “Davit Tonoyan should have submitted his resignation. The impunity of him and the responsible persons is a threat to the security of Armenia.” On November 20, Tonoyan resigned, specifically stating: “The created situation needs to be relieved. And I want my departure to be understood in that logic.”

Andranik Kocharyan responded to the defense minister’s resignation: “Davit Tonoyan should have resigned himself, not wait for him to be fired.”

And Tonoyan was replaced by Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who is close to Kocharyan, as the Minister of Defense.

As for Vazgen Sargsyan’s example, Andranik Kocharyan must know well what resulted in Vazgen Sargsyan’s resignation in October 1992, against the background of the loss of Artsvashen and the situation on the front.

The third president of RA, Serzh Sargsyan, during the “Tete A Tete” program told.

“In October 1992, information came that Vazgen should resign. I immediately got into a car and came to Yerevan. I told Vazgen that it is wrong to resign because, I assure you, we have already stopped the advance of the Azerbaijanis. Vazgen was silent for a moment and then said that the decision has been made. I said: you are wrong. He said: let it be my mistake too.

but then if I look at it from today’s point of view, it was the right step, precisely in the sense that many slanders and lies, which were bothering Vazgen, stopped for a moment. Rumors about the newly created Armenian army, etc., also stopped. Maybe it wasn’t just Vazgen’s decision, but I think it was the right move.”

And Vazgen Sargsyan in the position of Minister of Defense for a short time had replaced Vazgen Manukyan.

And Vazgen Sargsyan later became the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, and Nikol Pashinyan permanently was targeting in the background of the events taking place in the army.

More in March of this year 168.amthe wrote that in one of the interviews, Andranik Kocharyan decided to recall a famous incident involving Nikol Pashinyan and Vazgen Sargsyan, when there were doubts about the liberation of Karvachar, and how Vazgen Sargsyan reacted to it.

In fact, Andranik Kocharyan should have compared the case of Vazgen Sargsyan’s resignation with Nikol Pashinyan, who lost the 44-day war, who not only did not resign after the war, but is still in power and left the entire responsibility of the defeat on the army. Andranik Kocharyan was himself recently prompt The “zones” of responsibility of the army and Pashinyan for the defeat in the 44-day war.

In this context, perhaps, it would not hurt that the non-partisan Andranik Kocharyan compared how Nikol Pashinyan showed himself in 2021. After the request of his resignation by the General Staff on February 25, and what happened? In 1998 in february when, as Vazgen Sargsyan said, he had a conflict with the First President of the Republic of Armenia regarding the Artsakh issue and a number of people around Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Of course, we can say that Ter-Petrosyan himself wanted to leave, we can say that there are various assumptions and unanswered questions related to the statement of the General Assembly of February 25, 2021 and the departure of Onik Gasparyan. But in this particular case, the issue is not at all this, nor protecting the current defense minister or avoiding his responsibility.

The problem here, according to political calculations, is Andranik Kocharyan’s double game. to appear bold, to oppose Pashinyan’s security and foreign policy with a calculated dose, but to put the responsibility of de-escalating the situation on the military leadership, but never on Pashinyan, as the leader of a country that has lost a war and suffered territorial losses, who is the first responsible for the situation in and around the army.

Does Andranik Kocharyan think that the change of military leadership during Pashinyan’s rule will positively lead to a serious situation in the army and the security environment…

P.S. By the way, on various occasions, Andranik Kocharyan has spoken words of praise to the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Major General Artur Yeroyan, the Head of the Combat Training Department of the RA Armed Forces, Colonel Davit Aleksanyan, and the Head of the Military Academy named after Vazgen Sargsyan of the RA Defense Ministry, Major General Arsen Mangasaryan, but especially to General Yeroyan. Of course, at that time he was in charge of the National Defense and Security Standing Committee.