Dear readers, we are witnessing yet another season of the Armenian political series titled \u00abNikol Pashinyan's crimes and the Prosecutor's silence\u00bb. The plot is not new: the louder the self-incriminating confessions and accusations against the prime minister, the deeper the silence of the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Security Service. This pattern repeated itself following former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan\u2019s speech in parliament. This was not a former tabloid journalist speaking, but an individual possessing unique operational and strategic knowledge by virtue of his tenure as Defense Minister and member of the Security Council. His speech, if you will, amounted to a ready-made action plan for the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office and the NSS \u2014 one that was promptly shelved.<\/p>\n
Ohanyan, with the bluntness characteristic of a general, called things by their proper names. In any country where the rule of law and separation of powers are more than decorative principles \u2014 where special services and prosecutors are not instruments of the regime, nor tools for persecuting opposition figures \u2014 such statements would trigger immediate proceedings. Ohanyan\u2019s remarks were not mere opinions; they amounted to an indictment grounded in insider knowledge. They should have led to investigations, interrogations, and the seizure of documents. Yet this is Armenia, where such statements provoke little more than passing interest from Western diplomats, whose response is reduced to a sterile bullet point in a report: \u201cThe local elite continues its infighting. No threat to regime stability observed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let us examine them point by point.<\/p>\n
Point one: \u201cDiplomatic casus.\u201d\nOhanyan highlights fundamental contradictions in the authorities\u2019 public messaging \u2014 from the slogan \u00abArtsakh is Armenia\u00bb to claims of restarting negotiations from a \u00abzero point\u00bb. From the perspective of international law and diplomatic practice, such mutually exclusive signals erode a country\u2019s negotiating position. They devalue years of work within the OSCE Minsk Group framework, built on the principle of people\u2019s right to self-determination, and signal to the opposing side a complete absence of strategic consistency. This was not a mere error, but a deliberate and negligent dismantling of the state\u2019s foreign policy instruments.<\/p>\n
Point two: \u201cMilitary-strategic gem.\u201d\nThis constitutes the central and most serious accusation. Drawing on his knowledge of the command structure, Ohanyan clearly delineates the zone of responsibility. The southern sector \u2014 from which the enemy executed a catastrophic breakthrough toward Shushi \u2014 was defended by a joint grouping that included units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia. These forces operated under the operational command of the Armenian General Staff, while key decisions regarding their deployment during hostilities required approval from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Accordingly, matters of deployment, logistics, reserves, and threat response fall within the responsibility of Armenia\u2019s top military-political leadership \u2014 not solely the command of the Artsakh Defense Army. Attempts to shift blame onto \u201cdeserter generals\u201d serve only to evade accountability by dispersing guilt downward.<\/p>\n
Point three: \u201cMobilization collapse.\u201d Ohanyan points to the absence of an effective state mechanism for full-scale mobilization \u2014 economic, human, and organizational \u2014 during wartime. Instead of establishing a unified command headquarters and ensuring proper resource management, the country witnessed chaos and a public hunt for scapegoats within the army. This reflects a profound governance crisis under extreme conditions, when the state apparatus proved incapable of fulfilling its most basic function: national defense.<\/p>\n
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\u2014 \u044d\u0442\u043e\u0442 \u0441\u0430\u043c\u044b\u0439 \u044d\u043b\u0435\u043a\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0430\u0442, \u043f\u043e \u0432\u0435\u0440\u0441\u0438\u0438 \u0433\u043e\u0441\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0430 \u043f\u0440\u0435\u043c\u044c\u0435\u0440\u0430, \u00ab\u0434\u0430\u043b \u0438\u043c \u043c\u0430\u043d\u0434\u0430\u0442 \u043d\u0430 \u0448\u0430\u0433\u0438, \u043f\u0440\u044f\u043c\u043e \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0442\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0436\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u044d\u0442\u043e\u0439 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0433\u0440\u0430\u043c\u043c\u0435\u00bb.<\/p>\n A curious twist: voters, it turns out, did not vote for what was written in the program, but for its opposite. A \u201cmandate for counterintuitive actions.\u201d What telepathic signals, hidden codes, or unspoken instructions embedded in ballots enabled Armenian citizens to convey such a paradoxical message remains unexplained.<\/p>\n Point five: The delimitation process (2024).\nAccording to Ohanyan, the process lacks a proper strategic foundation and reflects one-sided concessions detrimental to the country\u2019s long-term security interests and territorial integrity.<\/p>\n The conclusion of Ohanyan\u2019s speech is not merely analytical. He speaks openly about the risks of reproducing the current trajectory and calls for opposition consolidation.<\/p>\n One may assess this appeal in different ways, but one fact remains: the internal logic of his argument leads directly to that conclusion.<\/p>\n Seyran Ohanyan presented a coherent chain of facts and decisions that, within a legal framework, may be qualified as negligence, abuse of power, and dereliction of duty \u2014 resulting in severe consequences for the country\u2019s defense capacity and territorial integrity.<\/p>\n The absence of even a formal pre-investigative review by the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office or the National Security Service is a more alarming symptom than the accusations themselves. It suggests that institutions formally tasked with safeguarding the law and national security are, in practice, shielding the ruling regime from scrutiny regarding its responsibility.<\/p>\n Thus, Ohanyan\u2019s speech performs a dual function. First, it articulates public accusations grounded in professional analysis. Second \u2014 and more importantly \u2014 it serves as a litmus test for the condition of Armenian statehood, exposing a deep divide between formal legal norms and actual practice, where political power places itself above both the law and the principle of accountability.<\/p>\nThe Public Tribunal\u2019s conclusion: accusation as a diagnostic of the state<\/h1>\n