10 Facts About How the 44-Day War Was Provoked

In an interview on the Review program, broadcast on the YouTube channel of the 168.am newspaper, military expert Hayk Nahapetyan stated that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan should be held responsible on the basis of the conclusions drawn by the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating the circumstances of the 44-Day War.

“If the committee has truly conducted an unbiased and professional investigation into the causes of the defeat during the 44 days and the period preceding it, at least several hundred state officials, headed by Nikol Pashinyan, should find themselves in a correctional colony on the basis of that committee’s findings,” Nahapetyan said.

Hayk Nahapetyan brought 10 facts confirming the deliberate actions of the Armenian authorities that led to the outbreak of the 44-Day War.

1. Following the April 2016 war, which exposed the vulnerabilities of Armenia’s air defense system, a decision was made to purchase essential anti-aircraft equipment using a $300 million Russian loan. The plan included acquiring “Krasukha” and “Pantsir” missile systems to counter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, after Nikol Pashinyan came to power, that contract was terminated.
2. Instead, the government used state budget funds to purchase inefficient SU-30 fighter jets, without the necessary ammunition, rendering them largely ineffective.
3. Since 2018, Pashinyan’s spouse, Anna Hakobyan, has been conducting state-level propaganda, publicly declaring that “our soldiers sacrificed their lives for nothing.” Such statements had a negative impact on the morale of Armenia’s Armed Forces.
4. Nikol Pashinyan publicly stated that he learned about the impending war only a few days before it began. This meant that the units of the Armed Forces of Armenia and the Defense Army of Artsakh should have been withdrawn from their permanent deployment locations. However, this was not done.
5. On September 1, 2020, Armenia received a proposal from Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, to conduct command and staff exercises. According to the scenario of these exercises, tens of thousands of terrorists from Syria, Libya, and Turkey, along with F-15 fighter jets of the Turkish Air Force, were positioned on the territory of Azerbaijan. The scenario explicitly outlined the main directions of the adversary’s potential attacks. Nevertheless, the Armenian authorities rejected the proposal.
6. Just two months before the war, the head of the ruling parliamentary faction, Lilit Makunts, publicly declared that in the event of a war with Azerbaijan, Turkey would never interfere.
7. On the day the war broke out, the Minister of Defense of Armenia was out of the country.
8. Prior to the hostilities, five reserve motorized rifle regiments had been established to reinforce the active military units during wartime.
9. Nikol Pashinyan contacted the leadership of Armenia’s strategic ally only on the 11th day of the war.
10. On October 19, 2020, Pashinyan rejected a proposal from the President of Russia to halt military operations under specific conditions. This occurred despite the fact that, just a week after the outbreak of war, Onik Gasparyan, Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, had submitted a report stressing the need to stop the war due to the high probability of Armenia’s defeat.

Watch the full details in the video:

Earlier, the Public Tribunal of Armenia released a retrospective video compilation of Nikol Pashinyan’s public statements, which testify to his deliberate and provocative policies that led to the 44-Day War and the loss of Artsakh.