Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan continues to put ultimatum demands that hinder the process of negotiations on Karabakh.

Armenian Prime Minister confirmed intention to continue the aggression against Azerbaijan during his participation in the PACE session. Pashinyan may not be aware of this, but supporting the provocative statements of Tonoyan, the head of Armenia declares a new war to Azerbaijan.

At the beginning of last week, remarkable discussions took place in the Armenian parliament.

Deputy Vahe Enfiadjyan from “Prosperous Armenia” proposed to extend the training period for new recruits to one year before sending them to the front line. He considers these changes will save many human lives, and 18 years old is too young to take up combat duty. He deputy compained of high mortality rate in the Armenian army, especially among conscripted soldiers. In particular, the number of suicides among military personnel and injuries of varying degrees of severity are high.

Indeed, in conditions where war can break out at any time, Armenia cannot afford the luxury of long-term training of soldiers. The country cannot afford the required funds for this. After all, training a soldier costs the state more than a coffin for another suicide or a victim of fellow soldiers. Recently, one soldier died in a Yerevan hospital from a gunshot wound. The lawsuit was filed on the case under the article about bringing to suicide.

In addition, the demographic crisis does not allow the Armenian side to be particularly picky. Replenishment of parts on the front line in the conditions of a shortage of the male population in Armenia is not a simple matter.

The 150,000 population of occupied Karabakh does not help to solve the problem of shortage of personnel. Therefore, conscripts are thrown into Karabakh from Armenia directly from the recruiting station or are referred there as a measure of punishment for some kind of offense. This is the only way to maintain the size of Armenian trenches.

An example is a recent incident in the Meghri military unit. For reasons that are now being investigated, several hundred military personnel left the duty station without permission. Many of them after returning to the unit were punished by sending them to occupied Karabakh.

The bill proposed by the MP from Prosperous Armenia, as expected, was rejected. Some of the statements made at the parliamentary discussions were unexpected in their frankness.

The new head of Yerkrapah Sasun Mikaelyan, a former militant who actively participated in the occupation of Azerbaijani Karabakh, was against the bill. Today he is a member of the ruling party’s faction and one of Nikol Pashinyan’s closest people. Recently, he was elected leader of the Yerkrapah volunteer union, replacing the arrested General Manvel Grigoryan.

Mikaelyan recalled his sensational statement at the Pashinyan's “My Step” election campaign. He called the April coup a more significant event for Armenia than the “victory” in the Karabakh war. This statement caused a hysterical reaction of the nationalists and the new opposition. Noteworthy that Pashinyan did not apologize for him before the memory of the “heroes”, but, on the contrary, justified and supported.

Now, explaining to journalists why it is impossible to stretch the period of training of servicemen before being sent to the front line, Mikaelyan said the long-term training finally exposed the forward positions of the occupying army. He noted that the personnel on the first line of “defense” just barely.

By his statement, Mikaelyan embarrassed Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, as well as the leadership of an illegal military unit in Karabakh. Both Tonoyan and the separatists declare that part of the Armenian Armed Forces fully control the situation, and the defense line is top-level. Moreover, Tonoyan with Karabakh separatists consider these units are ready not only for iron defense, but also for an offensive.

Armenian military circles should recall the impenetrable "line of defense of Oganyan," which was believed by the citizens of Armenia and which was broken in a few minutes by the Azerbaijani counterattack in April 2016.

In fact, Mikaelyan explained causes of defeat in April war and made it clear that nothing had changed since then.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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