What role did Anna Hakobyan play in the 44-day war?

Head of the security team of the “Strong Armenia” party, colonel-investigator Arthur Avanesyan (Kandaz) on March 31 reminded Taken during Anna Hakobyan’s visit to Tavush on April 1, 2023 the statement that 11,000 deserters was during the 44-day war.

“The reality is that we had 11,000 defectors during the 44-day war, I’m not expressing myself differently, you understand what I’m talking about. 11 thousand soldiers, volunteers, officers, etc., you can imagine, right, what a number that is.” Hakobyan insisted.

Apart from the fact that Artur Avanesyan reminded about this statement of Anna Hakobyan, he also emphasized. “Our soldiers are not deserters, they fought like lions, and your husband left our soldier defenseless, without a weapon.”

Anna Hakobyan decided not to let the detective’s video reminder go unanswered.

“I cannot remember this person during the 44-day war. It would definitely have caught my eye, and of course it would have impressed me, I would hardly forget it. And the degree of his awareness about the war and the degree of awareness about the sensational news of just one month old in Inner Armenia are directly comparable. Obviously, he has no idea (news) from both of them.” he wrote on his Facebook page.

I wonder what upset Anna Hakobyan the most here: the reminder of her statement and the opposition to it, keeping the honor of a regular army soldier, or at least the accusation publicly addressed to her ex-husband? In any case, this response raised new questions and confirmed the validity of the existing ones.

For example, why did Kandaz have to be in Anna Hakobyan’s eyes, where was it possible to see her and not see her, is it possible to see all the participants of the war, the command, and then, did Anna Hakobyan hold the position of a military leader, did being the wife of the head of the country at that time allow her to be in the command post, to have access to information and actions containing elements of secrecy? Anna Hakobyan has a serious responsibility in the context of being at the command post during the war, especially when and how 168.amto had reported RA Ministry of Defense:“According to the governing documents, permanent or temporary permits are issued for access to relevant officials performing operational duties at command points.”

Does Hakobyan’s status at that time apply to this requirement defined by the governing documents, did Anna Hakobyan have the right to be in the bunker and remotely observe the hot combat operations taking place at that time, as she once told Former Minister of Defense of Artsakh, former Secretary of the Council of Artsakh Samvel Babayan.

Here another question also arises: who gave such permission outside the law: the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, the commander of the Armed Forces, the then president of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, or…

Let’s not forget that during the days of the 44-day war, Anna Hakobyan is also an important discussion had In the room of Araik Harutyunyan, the former president of Artsakh who was sentenced to life in Baku.

Moreover, it was in the days when Baku first began to accuse Armenia and the RA armed forces of targeting the civilian population of Ganja, why not, also when the well-known counter-strike operation was being developed or confirmed, for the failure of which Jalal Harutyunyan was first accused and then acquitted. Of course, there are other issues related to Anna Hakobyan and her participation in the context of the 44-day war, which we have touched on more than once, the last time on February 27 of this year, “Open and kept secret facts. Anna Hakobyan’s responsibility related to the 44-day war cannot be canceled or negotiated in the article, so we won’t go into too much detail in this case.

By the way, we even wrote on one occasion why Anna Hakobyan was not called to the Investigative Commission, or why she was not questioned in specific cases.

If the government circles or Anna Hakobyan had doubts about the 44-day context of the same Artur Avanesyan, Kandaz, and did not believe what was published in the press. data, why didn’t they talk about it earlier and only remembered now? It would be good if the same was done for the KP or pro-KP volunteers, who have many questions about what was done and what was not done in the 44-day war. there are questions and nothing that Artsrun Hovhannisyan invited them to briefings during the war.

And we have raised the issues related to the 44-day holiday that concern us in these years, not according to political convenience and preference, and we have always tried to get information or clarification from the relevant bodies. Another question is the extent to which they do or do not hide the information they have.

For example, from the Ministry of Defense reported where was Ashot Pashinyan during the 44-day war, but when and for how long, they avoided answering, do you agree that this is a key episode, or when did his squad retreat from the Alpasha hill, etc.?

By the way, we have not been able to find out why during the 44-day war 4 high-ranking officials of the NSS get rid of from work, including the director of the National Security Service, the head of military intelligence, the reason is unknown.

In particular, on October 7, 2020, as the official sources reported, he was removed from his post were Levon Shahumyan, head of military counter-intelligence of the NSS. “Armenian time” that presented in the context of espionage detection operations, is the reason here? And a day later?in 2020 on October 8 From the position of the director of the NSS was released Argishti Kyaramyan, who on October 5 had participated to the development of the mentioned operation or its discussion, does Anna Hakobyan know why? Despite this, Kyaramyan remained in Artsakh until the end after his dismissal, and later headed the RA Investigative Committee.

As for desertions during the 2020 war, of course there have been such cases, but the question is how many, from the regular army, or from casual war field reservists and volunteers, and what prompted it?

Anna Hakobyan seems to question the fact that the soldier is not a deserter, the degree of awareness of others on such delicate issues, we do not doubt that she possesses a serious information base.

Moreover, it is possible that neither the 44-day investigation commission nor the law enforcement agencies have much of the information that Nikol Pashinyan has in his hands, why?

Doesn’t possessing such a volume of information base and not fully transferring it to the relevant authorities imply specific responsibility?

And we have sent written requests to the RA Investigative Committee, the RA General Prosecutor’s Office and the RA Ministry of Defense in order to obtain new data related to the desertion. We will publish the answers as soon as we receive them. Maybe Anna Hakobyan is right: what we have is old, it needs updating, even though it is a year old.

In particular, RA Investigative Committee June 9, 2025in response to our inquiry, he informed that during the 44-day military operations of 2020, in the cases of crimes against military service in the divisions of the Main Military Investigation Department of the RA Investigative Committee About 1,500 criminal proceedings have been initiated against 11,000 or more servicemen. with which a preliminary investigation was carried out and the course of many criminal proceedings was resolved in accordance with the law.

In turn, at the same time RA General Prosecutor’s Office also announced the following.

“In response to the request of June 9, 2025, we inform you that in the service area of ​​the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office During the 2020 44-day war and declared martial law (from September 27, 2020 to March 24, 2021) in accordance with Part 7 of Article 361 (voluntarily leaving a military unit or place of service), Part 3 of Article 362 (desertion) and Part 3 of Article 364 (refusal to perform military service duties) of the RA Criminal Code adopted on April 18, 2003, as well as As of May 1, 2025, an investigation is being carried out in the pre-trial proceedings with criminal proceedings initiated by a combination of articles Regarding 8240 persons. Committed crimes provided for in the mentioned articles 352 guilty verdicts were passed on the persons.

Due to the course of pre-trial and judicial investigations, the said digital data are constantly changing.”

In June 2025, we tried to find out from Suren Papikyan through a written inquiry whether the number of 11,000 deserters corresponds to reality, how many of the alleged deserters are from the regular army, and how many are not, to which the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia answered.

«The question raised by you is beyond the scope of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.”

And? 168.amin 2025 «Is Anna Hakobyan’s number about 11,000 desertions during the 44-day war a lie or a leak? with the text article: published, where we asked whether the number of 11,000 defectors mentioned by Anna Hakobyan might be a leak, and if so, by whose hand was it taken out of the walls of the Investigative Commission, although Andranik Kocharyan later did not deny the authenticity of that number. But here is a question, we repeat: were there deserters from the regular army, and what number are we talking about?

And it is precisely to find out the answer to these and other questions that we believe that the report of the 44-day investigative commission should be published, in this case it will become clear what reasons the military leadership mentioned during their interrogations for the defeat in the war, how relaxed they were in this matter, where is their responsibility and where is the political leadership?

In the end, one should also know how much the lack of modern weapons contributed to the defeat of the war, how much the quality and wrong use of the existing weapons, how much the command decisions led to the defeat, how much the Pashinyan management system itself, also the above-mentioned statutory violations, i.e., the organized disorganization or “complicated” state, how much the legislative loopholes played a role in the defeat, and finally how much the fact that only against us Azerbaijan did not fight.

By the way, it is interesting that the former military leadership should be demanding in answering and publicizing these questions, especially when all the responsibility is placed on the army, if, of course, the 44-day report covers them comprehensively. But we won’t know this if the report is kept under wraps.

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