Once again at the session of the National Defense and Security Standing Committee discussed CP deputy Hayk Sargsyan’s legislative package related to the army.
The MP again insisted on the fact that the number of conscripts has decreased, and that the number of people renouncing RA citizenship has increased by about 40 percent.
The chairman of the commission, Andranik Kocharyan, informed that the expert and analytical department of the staff of the National Assembly presented a comprehensive conclusion, which states the unconstitutionality of a number of provisions in the legislative package presented by Hayk Sargsyan.
Deputy Minister of Defense Arman Sargsyan, who was present at the discussion, in his turn noted that the executive does not find it appropriate to accept the discussed issue and suggested refraining from giving a positive conclusion to this initiative, finding that the problem of increasing the number of conscripts will not be solved by such regulation.
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At the same time, the Ministry of Defense official countered the claims of the MP representing the ruling power and assured that the number of conscripts in the period between 2022-2026 increased by 25 percent compared to the 2022 draft.
However, Hayk Sargsyan’s legislative initiative received a negative conclusion as a result of the voting organized at the session of the National Defense and Security Standing Committee.
After this, CP deputy Hayk Sargsyan gave a briefing to journalists and made it clear that RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan violated the agreement.
“I worked with the Minister of Defense for two years, we came to an agreement, and after that only I circulated my project.”– stressed Hayk Sargsyan.
Still last year 168.amwithin the framework of this topic, addressed the role played by Suren Papikyan in the implementation of this project. Specifically, in one of the articles we wrote that the legislative package authored by Hayk Sargsyan was on the agenda of the Government session, it was even approved, and Suren Papikyan also presented and even expressed a certain position on behalf of the department he headed, introduced changes. In other words, maybe in some sense he entered into that political or Hayk Sargsyan-Nikol Pashinyan game, trying to solve certain problems related to the conscription process in its logic.
On the other hand, referring to our sources, we reported at that time that Suren Papikyan was more interested in the fight against the practice and statistics of renouncing RA citizenship in order to avoid mandatory military service. Therefore, at the last meeting of the Government objected Instead of amending the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On State Duties”, the Law of “Defence” should provide for a public legal monetary obligation of 15 million drams to the Republic of Armenia by male citizens before reaching the age of 16, which ceases by virtue of the fact of taking the male citizen into the military register or by payment to the state budget in case of leaving the RA citizenship.
Of course, there can be reservations here as well, if we take into account that the close circle of government officials also takes such a step.
Already in January 2026, at a meeting with journalists, Suren Papikyan announced that he fired those employees whose sons received citizenship of another country in order to be released from the army. Of course, specialists treat this topic with reservations from a legal point of view, and Suren Papikyan may see the issue more in the moral field, even if there are legal problems there. Anyway, this issue is a topic of separate discussion, and there will still be an occasion to address it with private cases.
And Hayk Sargsyan, taking into account the current relations with CP, Nikol Pashinyan and Suren Papikyan, told journalists some episodes from the closed meetings.
“For two years, I have been asking the Minister of Defense, saying: in the army, the troops bathe once a week, create an opportunity, let them bathe every day.
What caused the problem? In 2024, one of the deputies asked a question in the closed discussion, we had a case of death from pneumonia, probably he had bathed in cold water, but he said that it is not only in our army that they bathe once a week, it is like that in many armies. In many countries, soldiers bathe every day, in Armenia and in African or underdeveloped countries, they bathe once a week. Two years have passed and the situation is the same, of course we have some newly built places where people bathe every day, but it is a small percentage. But most of our boys bathe once a week, let the leadership of the Ministry of Defense also bathe once a week, I’ll see if they can.” KP deputy told reporters, adding that the number of troops decreased from 44,000 to 14,000.
And although it is not the first time that Hayk Sargsyan, following the example of Nikol Pashinyan, contains elements of secrecy information publishes, or publicizes internal problems in the army, considering it wrong to keep quiet about them, so that the Turk would not suddenly be happy, however, the journalists tried to find out from him once again whether it is correct to publish the number of troops, to publicize the problems within the army, to which the CP deputy replied noted.
“In 2019, when I said that the number of our troops increased from 44,000 to 25, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense said, “The enemy will soon know that our number has decreased. What is Hayk Sargsyan doing?” After a few months, what happened, the disastrous war of 2020 happened, and after the war, what did the former defense minister say, he said that During the entire war, Azerbaijan followed the entire movement on the coast, 24/7.
In other words, he found out where the commander of the defense army is, he shot him, where the deputies are, he shot him. In other words, not only did he know the absolute numbers, but he knew the locations of the commanders, the army leadership, and important units by name, and he made target hits. And the idea that the enemy will find out, it collapsed in 2020.
Both our troop locations, supply routes, positions, etc., have all been considered, are being considered, and will be considered. In other words, this idea that he is talking about the army, he thinks that our situation will get worse with secrecy… The critical situation has been badly fixed since 2020, and we also talked about it in the investigative commission of the 44-day war, that the enemy knew it well.”
I wonder if, during the closed interrogations of the Investigative Commission, Hayk Sargsyan tried to find out how the enemy managed to do this, after all, before the 44-day war, there was a different positional arrangement. In other words, we want to understand whether Hayk Sargsyan also possesses data on state treason, especially when he participated in the work of the Investigative Commission. Moreover, against hiding the reality and in favor of speaking openly about the problems, does Hayk Sargsyan want the 44-day report to be published so that we know who showed the location of the command and when they will be. In other words, not everything can be determined by observation and satellite photos. Of course, Hayk Sargsyan is silent about all this.
In this context, let us remind that in 2022 168.amthe wrote that The person who committed treason in 2018 appeared on the battlefield in 2020 and committed the same act again. He was the leader of the “Hayduk” detachment during the 44-day war Garun Babayan is about, which He is the brother of the legendary commander Mushegh Babayan (Hamo from Jermuk).
During these years, we have not been able to find out from the National Security Service how it was possible for a person who committed treason in 2018 to appear on the battlefield in 2020. That is, 2When was the state treason committed in 2018 revealed, or was it revealed only 2 years later, and if it was revealed before the war, then why was he not in the focus of the National Security Service and was able to participate in the 44-day war and perform the same treasonous actions? Court hearings in this case are closed, information is closed, we will try to understand if there is already a verdict and what verdict. And before that, let’s note that the NSS message was spread About Garun Babayan that he “2020 on September 27, in order to fulfill the new assignments given by the employees of the Azerbaijani special services during the military operations against the Republic of Artsakh, as the commander of the volunteer squad, under the pretext of participating in hostilities, went to the battlefield, self-defense region of Hadrut, Republic of Artsakh, and: until the end of October of the same year, he continued his treacherous practice of collecting information and passing it on to the special services of a hostile state.” In other words, G. Babayan, according to the National Security Service, took photos and videos with his mobile phones «transmitted information to the hostile state about anti-aircraft defenses, missile systems, armored vehicles, combat positions, their and other units that participated in the war, military units, their locations, etc. in the territory of Artsakh and Armenia.
Who knows, maybe the commanders who died during the 44-day war were targeted as a result of the treacherous actions of this person or group?
By the way, years ago, we tried to find out from the National Security Service if the murders of the best commanders in Hadrut, or whether the murders of the deputy commander of the Defense Forces Artur Sargsyan and hero of Artsakh Sergey Shakaryan at the Martuni command post in October 2020 were the result of betrayal, to which the National Security Service said that they did not have such data at that time.
Let’s return to Hayk Sargsyan and recall an episode in the context of the 44-day war of 2020, when information and facts circulated during the war that during the war, Nikol Pashinyan to Hayk Sargsyan’s (“Bottle Catcher”) brother, Nairi Sargsyan, authorized to purchase with cash from the state budget 5 million US dollars body armor, UAVs, thermal sighting devices.
In particular, Nairi Sargsyan, On behalf of the Republic of Armenia, he purchased 3,000 bulletproof vests at a cost of 240 USD each. In other words, for this purpose, 720,000 US dollars were provided to Sargsyan from the state budget. There are also others like this episodes.
It is interesting that on August 1, 2023, during the questioning of the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan in the Investigative Commission, one of Hayk Sargsyan’s questions was about body armor and helmets, in particular, he considered it normal to use hunting body armor during the war, and claimed that many went to war in sports uniforms. This already speaks about Pashinyan’s power management system and failed mobilization, about which Hayk Sargsyan consistently spoke or did he still have friendly relations with Pashinyan at that time?
In other words, the question is whether Hayk Sargsyan would have made many of his declassifications if his project had been implemented, if Papikyan had “kept his word”, which he may have given.
As for spreading secret information on the grounds that Azerbaijan sees everything, it is absolutely not permissible, but it is an accepted rule for the ruling power, Pashinyan and his ministers. In other words, what is normal for the current government does not mean that it is actually normal and acceptable.
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