Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s “Brilliant Revelation”: Fascist Germany Planned to Create a United Armenia
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, former representative of Armenia’s Defense Ministry and currently Head of the Command and Staff Institute at the Vazgen Sargsyan Military University, appeared on Petros Ghazaryan’s political program on Armenian Public Television on May 9, 2025. During the interview, Hovhannisyan took it upon himself to “dispel myths” about the Great Patriotic War. The man widely regarded as the embodiment of wartime misinformation during the 44-day war of 2020—now fully aligned with the current anti-national authorities—has turned his attention to rewriting history, in what many see as an echo of Goebbels-style propaganda. Demonstrating the same polished deception that characterized his wartime briefings, the disgraced colonel claimed that Hitler had allegedly planned to attack Turkey via Bulgaria and Armenia after taking Stalingrad. According to Hovhannisyan, this would have led to the establishment of a “united, historical Armenia.” However, he added, the German defeat at Stalingrad thwarted those supposed plans.
The Golos Armenii newspaper published an article titled “New Herodotus", reacting to the controversial statements made by Artsrun Hovhannisyan.
This boldly refutes decades of established global historiography, which clearly states that Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939—prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany
But according to Artsrun Hovhannisyan, these are mere myths. In his version of history, both Germany and the Soviet Union were responsible for starting the war. Furthermore, according to Artsrun Hovhannisyan, at the initial stage of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the latter actually held the upper hand in terms of both manpower and military equipment. However, it was the exclusive quality of German military minds that secured their victories in the early phase of the war. According to Hovhannisyan, Germany had “the most advanced military minds.” In his words, when it comes to military brilliance, “Germany is the first that comes to mind” — says Petros’s friend Artsrun.
According to him, the Soviet Union won the war solely thanks to its overwhelming manpower and the American lend-lease support — sugar, uniform fabric, canned meat, Studebakers, and airplanes. As for the famed T-34 tanks, Hovhannisyan claimed they only became truly effective after being equipped with main guns based on American models.
According to Artsrun, the major operations conducted by the Soviet Army were far from exceptional — neither the Battle of Moscow, nor Stalingrad, nor the lifting of the Leningrad siege, the Battle of Kursk, or the Dnieper crossing impressed him. In his view, none of these matched the brilliance of German military strategy. The only operation that Hovhannisyan considers somewhat noteworthy — and occasionally mentions to his students — is Operation Bagration, which led to the liberation of Belarus. However, he emphasizes that even in that case, the Soviet command enjoyed a ninefold superiority in manpower and equipment. Thus, even that operation, by his assessment, does not qualify as outstanding.
And finally, he claims that, unlike the Americans, the Soviet Union gained absolutely nothing from the victory. Nothing at all, he insists—disregarding the Soviet influence over Eastern Europe, ignoring Kaliningrad, the Kuril Islands, Karelia—while these are just the most obvious and well-known gains.
The problem is that this overt Germanophile and newly emerged “historian-thinker” of Nikol Pashinyan’s Armenia now heads the country’s military academy. And that’s considered normal—as long as Erdogan’s apologist, Pashinyan, remains in power.
P.SP.S. A delegation led by Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has left for a working visit to Germany. The path is clearly being paved.
The full interview with Artsrun Hovhannisyan is available in the video below:
