Author: Emil Lazarian

EU High Representative Kaya Kalas the other day announced, that “the European Union will send a ‘hybrid rapid response team’ to Armenia to help counter threats ahead of the country’s elections.”

During a meeting with journalists after the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Kalas stated that “support for the stability of democracy in the region remains the most important”.

“We will not leave Armenia alone in the fight against foreign interference. Democracies under pressure can count on Europe.” said the diplomat, reminding that Yerevan asked for help.

Head of YSU Political Institutes and Processes Chair, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor Garik Keryan according to him, what is happening is mostly understandable, because the EU today has a problem to protect those regimes in the post-Soviet area, which have a western orientation.

“Of course, we know what a tough conflict the West, and now especially the EU, is in with Russia, we also know that Russia’s foreign political supremacy is regaining its influence in the post-Soviet space. In this context, everything is understandable. The EU can achieve its strategic goals if it preserves and increases the anti-Russian, Western regimes in the post-Soviet space. At the same time, Russia can regain its influence in the post-Soviet area if it strengthens the pro-Russian regimes and, conversely, achieves the defeat of the elections and the departure of pro-Western or, more precisely, pro-European regimes.

We saw what fierce struggle unfolded in Moldova and how much effort the European Union put in to save the regime of Maya Sandu. We have seen what huge military expenses are spent to save Ukraine, and in the South Caucasus today the EU’s primary attention is directed to Armenia. He is very worried that the pro-Russian forces will win in the upcoming elections.” 168.am–Garik Keryan said in a conversation with

Why, especially now, is the EU so earnestly trying to activate its position and influence in Armenia with the slogan of “fighting hybrid war”? According to the observation of our interlocutor, the problem is that in order to have a geostrategic influence in the South Caucasus, it is necessary to have strong positions in 3 republics. Having strong positions in one or two countries leaves the goal incomplete. In turn, history also shows that you have to dominate the South Caucasus completely or not at all.

“Now the situation in the South Caucasus is as follows: Azerbaijan is completely integrated with Turkey, which is definitely not under the influence of the EU today, because the EU “grabbed Turkey by the nose” for about 35 years and did not accept the EU, there is a rather hardened anti-European mentality there. Until 2012, Georgia was under the influence of the EU, separated from Russia and pursued an anti-Russian foreign policy, and had a clear roadmap for integration into NATO and the EU. After 2012, Georgian society seems to have taken a very sharp turn, because it was the pro-Western Saakashvili regime that suffered an embarrassing defeat in the elections.

Today, Georgia is not only under the influence of the EU, but on the contrary, the Brussels cabinets are not only talking about canceling Georgia’s membership in the EU, but even imposing sanctions on the Ivanishvili-Kobakhidze tandem. It turns out that the EU has no influence on Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the only state in the Caucasus that still inspires hope in the EU is Armenia,” the political scientist added.

According to Garik Keryan, this is the reason why Armenia has acquired a very important importance for the EU and the United States. Of course, according to him, the United States prefers Azerbaijan economically, politically and geostrategically, taking into account the border with Iran, gas and oil resources, being integrated with NATO Turkey, so Armenia is not of such great importance for the United States.

“However, Armenia is very important for the orientation of the political regime or the dominance of the foreign political vector for the EU. Taking these circumstances into account, the EU will do everything to keep Armenia in its vector,” Garik Keryan emphasized.

Let’s remind that back in February, Azatutyun radio station published the RA Foreign Minister’s letter to Brussels, in which he asked to send a rapid response team to Armenia on the eve of the elections. In addition, at the end of the year, the EU announced that it was going to allocate 12 million euros to Armenia “to fight against Russian disinformation” on the eve of the elections.

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In recent days, the chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs, Andranik Kocharyan, has given interviews to various media almost one after the other (“Faktor”, “Kentron” TV Company, “Armenia” TV Company). And, naturally, the report of the 44-day investigative commission was not bypassed in all places, it was noted that the legal goal is important, not the formal terms, which is disputed whether it was violated or not.

Andranik Kocharyan is sure that the 44-day report will find its way, but it is not known when. One thing is clear: before the elections, Nikol Pashinyan’s government will not even present the permissible parts to the public, nor the concluding part of the report, which, as Kocharyan claims, is based on undeniable facts, and he would like it to be published at some point as a result of the discussion with his colleagues.

That is, even though many key figures were not questioned, many important episodes were not taken into account, and essentially an attempt was made to absolve the political leadership of the responsibility for the defeat of the 2020 war, the report also has another and very specific subjective side, which we wrote however, the current authorities have certain fears.

It should be noted that the report of the Investigative Commission was forwarded to the Speaker of the National Assembly on September 3, 2025.

And a month later, Andranik Kocharyan on Public TV announced, that report It is 215 pages. and only the conclusion approx 20 pages.

But lo and behold, on March 17, 2026, on the air of “Armenia” TV, the chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs declared.

«Investigator: of the commission the report Out of 400 pages more became, with its videos, the textual part, protocolwith A:in permanent value is it in terms of, that State structures ուսումնասիրելով՝ հասկանան՝ 44-daily in the war our of defeat the foundations where? need is let them see. And when you see the foundations, you also solve the problems we talked about at the beginning by learning lessons, related to armaments, personnel training, changes in legislation, implementation of the government’s plan.”

Moreover, Andranik Kocharyan did not say about the report being about 200 pages only on the air of Public TV, but in all other briefings and in interviews:

It is not clear how the volume of the report has increased by about 200 pages now, is it a slip of the tongue or… After all, it is not the first such case in the case of Andranik Kocharyan. 2025 on November 27 NA Speaker Alen Simonyan publishedr: The number of victims of the 44-day war of 2020: 3833, which was also approved by the RA Investigative Committee at the same time, and 2025 on November 19 Given to Factor TV in the interview the same Andranik Kocharyan noted. “Let me say a number, will it be enough for you: 3987?”

Andranik Kocharyan, in an interview given to “Armenia” TV on March 17, 2026, in the context of the 44-day war and the US-Israeli military operation against Iran, claimed that “today we are more protected than before the 44-day war and even after the four-day war”, and that they learned lessons from the 44-day war and acquired modern weapons, trained qualified personnel.

“Today we are more prepared than we were during 2020. If we had today’s fortresses and system during the four-day and 44-day war, we would have a completely different picture. Forceful of actions time a lot important is, or first the blow how me acceptance, suspension and: backlash delivers. And today this the castles us opportunity are gives Azerbaijan with border alive along to have engineering such system, which first and the blow to stop big possibly is օժտված՝ aerial, terrestrial”.

Andranik Kocharyan very rightly says that during war and military operations, it is very important how you take the first blow. And one of the key issues related to the 44-day war of 2020 is exactly this: why the Defense Army, the armed forces have completely gone into defense were not there are open facts that prove this, and it is also because of this that in the first hours of the war we had many victims and material losses, which Samvel Babayan may have said in the investigative commission, because he was one of the first to speak about this during the war. On the morning of September 27, the Armed Forces of Artsakh had already lost 50 percent of their anti-aircraft forces and 40 percent of their artillery in 15 minutes.

In other words, the question is when was the “number one readiness” order issued?, and some orders, orders from September 23, 2020, at that time, Onik Gasparyan, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia fired. Has this issue been discussed, has the former military leadership clarified during their interrogations why we accepted the first strike the way we did?

If not, it’s bad, if yes, then it’s bad that they don’t respond and allow theses favorable to Andranik Kocharyan or the authorities to circulate.

On the other hand, in their timely statements, both the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia David Tonoyan, and former head of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan some things have been said, but it is not enough, it is necessary to shed light on the key issues that the authorities throw into the field. And Andranik Kocharyan must know very well that in the 44-day war, the management system failed first of all.

And since he also mentioned the legislation in his interview, did the Investigative Committee discuss how it is that during the war, under the conditions of martial law declared in RA, the head of the General Staff de facto has been subjected to to Nikol Pashinyan, who declared himself supreme commander, and not to the Minister of Defense, which is required by the legislation.

By the way, Can Andranik Kocharyan, who once considered the plan of using “Iskander” shameful, can say today: after all, why was it not used on the 2nd day of the war, for example?

Note that: on September 28, 2020 the briefing with journalists, during which the question: why don’t we put our “Iskander” into action, why don’t we target the enemy’s oil wells?՝ Andranik Kocharyan is tough to answer was.

“We are doing well, we will act whenever necessary. Leave that to the military professionals. I think that you do not notice chaotic, situational decisions from the logic of military operations at least these two days. You see the logic of the steps.”

Can it be said today if there was any logic in when, how and in which direction “Iskander” was finally used, and why?

Actually, this series of questions and reminders could go on, but there is no need for unnecessary repetition.

As for the fortresses, as Andranik Kocharyan says, they are not a bad thing, but they have not received a “military baptism”, and then, as we have already mentioned, if the management system does not actually exist, when all the government levels are not ready for war, then the weapons and fortresses cannot be a lifeline and ensure victory.

Has something changed in this regard, is it not the government that lost the war in Armenia, have the legislative loopholes been eliminated? I think the answer is obvious.

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