Author: Emil Lazarian

Head of the security team of the “Strong Armenia” party, colonel-investigator Arthur Avanesyan (Kandaz) on March 31 remindedr: Taken during Anna Hakobyan’s visit to Tavush on April 1, 2023 the statement that 11,000 deserters was during the 44-day war, then he emphasized. “Our soldiers are not deserters, they fought like lions.”

Anna Hakobyan did not respond to the detective’s reminder, writing: “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.”

There have certainly been desertions during the 2020 war, but the question is, how many, from the regular army or from casual battlefield reservists and volunteers, and what prompted it?

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

Moreover, it is possible that, like Nikol Pashinyan, neither the 44-day investigation commission nor the law enforcement agencies have a lot of information 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?

On April 1, we 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.

From the structure headed by Artur Poghosyan reported that they do not have “up-to-date” data on desertions during the 44-day war.

Anna Vardapetyan too informed that on the charges of voluntarily leaving the military unit or the place of service, desertion and refusal to fulfill the duties of military service Six years after the 44-day war, a guilty verdict was passed 410 about the person.

And the Ministry of Defense responded to our written request by violating the 30-day deadline. We tried to find out from the Ministry of Defense how many cases of desertion were recorded between September 27 and November 9, 2020, what information did the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces have, were there 11-12,000 deserters, and how many of them are related to the regular army and how many to the reserve army?

After more than 30 days, in response to our questions, Suren Papikyan stated that they are “outside the jurisdiction of the RA Ministry of Defense”.

How to understand whether there were no deserters from the regular army or… one thing is clear: the Minister of Defense at least does not confirm Anna Hakobyan’s claim or suspicion regarding desertion from the regular army.

It should be noted that on April 11, 168.am provided exclusive information and published documents Regarding cases of desertion and desertion among police officers and prison officers during the 44-day war.

And in our written request addressed to the Ministry of Defense, we also included the following questions:

– During the 44-day war, where was Anna Hakobyan before the formation of the “Erato” squad, was she given any assignment, is there any information about where she could see or not see detective Artur Avanesyan, Kandaz, was Anna Hakobyan assigned any intelligence tasks?

– Where was the “Erato” squad during the 44-day war?

– Where, when and for how long was Ashot Pashinyan’s squad during the 44-day war and did it carry out combat operations? And when did his squad retreat from Alpasha Hill?

Before the formation of the “Erato” detachment, in response to the question regarding the actions of Anna Hakobyan during the war, Suren Papikyan again noted that they were “outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia”. And during that period, Hakobyan was at the command post, remotely watching the ongoing combat operations, while being a leader The documents clearly state: who are entitled to it.

“In general, according to the governing documents, permanent or temporary permits are issued to enter relevant officials performing operational duties at command points,” the Ministry of Defense stated in its response to our written inquiry in 2024, when we asked to clarify who, according to the regulations, can enter the command point. After all, Anna Hakobyan is not the only one who entered the “forbidden area”.

Regarding the operations of the “Erato” detachment during the war, the place of deployment, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia stated in its letter:

“The “Erato” detachment, like other volunteer detachments, was included in the newly formed military units (units) in the Armed Forces, was equipped and came under the command of the commander of the 1st Army Corps.”

Note that there is nothing new in this answer, more so in 2023 168.amin response to the written request of the RA Ministry of Defense gave details that 2020 on October 25 equipped and came under the command of the commander of the 1st Army Corps, the squad was first deployed in the area of ​​Hartashen village, and then in the N combat position of Kornidzor.

And in June 2021, in the city of Abovyan, Nikol Pashinyan, referring to the “combat” actions of his wife Anna Hakobyan’s “Erato” squad, announced:

“After Stepanakert, when I say this is Sardarapat, you have to stop. my wife forms a women’s volunteer squad, and they go to Sisian, undergo combat training and go and stand in the trenches of Goris. What is wrong here, betrayal? They should have been in the salons for it to be true.”

What this gave in the context of hostilities is not difficult to guess, if not what it “took”.

Let us add that during the 44-day war, the commander of the 1st Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces was General Zhirayr Poghosyan, who seems to be only a witness in criminal cases.

Regarding Ashot Pashinyan’s volunteer action, Suren Papikyan reminded that information about this was already reported in 2023. Yes, some data provided by: where was he, when did he return from Artsakh, who was the commander?

But we still did not manage to find out, also this time, during the 44-day war in Jrakan and Kubatli, when was Ashot Pashinyan, how long did he stay and what combat operations did he participate in, when did he leave those areas?

Agree that the chronology and concreteness of the events can suggest a lot, especially when during the court session in the case of the former First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Tiran Khachatryan you find out that Ashot Pashinyan’s detachment may have something to do with the retreat from Alpasha Hill.

By the way, yesterday, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs Andranik Kocharyan remembered Tiran Khachatryan from the rostrum of the Parliament, moreover, against the background of the statements of the former RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan regarding the 44-day anniversary.

“The responsibility of the southern direction was on confederate Tiran Khachatryan, who was accidentally injured again, and we had failures in the south. You can ask Tiran Khachatryan questions in a closed alliance format: how did that happen? It’s all in the report, please read it. And there are videos, and they substantiate what I said,” Andranik Kocharyan stated.

We will still try to find out in what “tone” the general is mentioned in the 44-day report. And today, Seyran Ohanyan added another one to his recent announcements, stating:

“Certainly, the responsibility must be borne by those people who, seeing the whole retreat, encouraged the way of the whole retreat. It refers to today’s leader of the country, and to the then president. He himself says what was presented to him for the titles of general and heroes, he himself presented it to the president. Do you not know your duties, or what kind of task he has performed? If somewhere on the battlefield, a counterattack was organized, then let that captain, sergeant, private get the title of hero.”

In the context of “sticking” Nikol Pashinyan, so to speak, isn’t the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia indirectly targeting Tiran Khachatryan, the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the RA Armed Forces, who was in charge of the southern direction, and Onik Gasparyan, who proposed to give him the title of National Hero, whose “attributes” Tiran Khachatryan did not even take?

And it is very interesting that in these days and in the mentioned context, Seyran Ohanyan never remembered Ashot Pashinyan’s detachment, which could have something to do with the retreat from Alpasha hill. This is a separate discussion topic.

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The economic reality of Armenia once again breaks the propaganda image of “economic success” built by the government over the years.

While Nikol Pashinyan’s government continues to talk about economic activity, “unprecedented growth”, increased pensions, the ordinary citizen faces a completely different reality in his daily life: constant price increases, decreasing purchasing power and social uncertainty. The latest data published by the RA Statistical Committee prove that in 2026 in March, the 12-month inflation was already out of the acceptable range for the second month in a row (2-4%). 3.3% inflation in January already became 4.2% in February, and in March it increased even more, reaching 4.5%.

If in February, some people tried to present the situation as a temporary phenomenon, now it is obvious that quite worrying and dangerous trends are forming within the economy. Against the backdrop of government announcements about high economic activity, demand-driven price pressures are actually maintained, and in the conditions of regional tension, supply-related risks are also deepening. In other words, the talk about “sustainability” can be considered as a fairy tale that an attempt is made to impose on the public.

The most worrying thing is that according to the Council of the Central Bank of RA in 2026 The official report of the May 5 session: 12-month normal inflation has already reached 4.7%of This means that even the seasonal price reduction of fruits and vegetables cannot control the general inflation. In other words, price increases have become profound and widespread. It seems that the RA citizen should spend less in these months, taking into account that the heating season is over, and utility bills logically decrease relatively, but the fact of inflation, along with non-increasing incomes, simply empties citizens’ wallets.

Such a situation is an indicator of the failure of economic policy, because every, even small, fluctuation in the region has a serious consequence on the economy of Armenia. this is the result of an economic policy that is exclusively dependent on external factors. By the way, the Central Bank Council in 2026 in the session of May 5, it did not change the refinancing rate of 6.5%, which has remained unchanged for about 5 months, until 2025. from December 16. It turns out that the government is trying to gain time during the pre-election period, avoiding tough but necessary decisions.

It is obvious that the current government, in all probability, already felt that in the case of such dynamics of inflation, it will be difficult to control the wave of social dissatisfaction rising among the public. That is why it was suddenly decided to increase the minimum pension by 10,000 drams before the elections. Moreover, that decision was so hasty and populist that even some officials of the ruling team learned about it at the last moment. What is this, if not a classic pre-election bribery?

This decision is miles away from being a long-term social policy solution. And even after this step, Pashinyan’s government could not fulfill its programmatic promise to equalize the average amount of the pension to the value of the consumer basket. Instead, the government began to artificially “fill” the missing money, pretending that the money returned from non-cash transactions through the cashback mechanism (repayment of pension and benefits) supposedly solves the problem. However, the government forgets to mention the most important thing: thousands of pensioners do not use cashback at all, they do not have the skills and knowledge to actively use bank cards, and in the case of rural settlements, making purchases with cashless transactions is simply limited.

The current situation is dangerous not only in the economic sense, but also in the political sense. On the one hand, the incomes of the citizens are not sufficient to withstand the increase in prices, on the other hand, the government continues to engage in short-term propaganda measures, trying to maintain the minimum level of social tolerance until the elections. The most dangerous thing is that the current inflation indicators still do not fully reflect the impact of those “pre-election gifts”. This means that in the coming months the citizen of Armenia may face a harsh reality․ the new inflation will simply “swallow” the noisy increases in pensions, and the government’s promises will again remain only on paper.

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