Colonel Armen Sargsyan, convicted for declassifying order 0038 linked to the March 2008 events, has insisted that the third president, Serzh Sargsyan, also played a key role in those events.
The former official, however, did not open other brackets: “I will only say that I myself and my subordinates took part in those so-called urgent measures that took place in the government building. Khachaturov was not its leader; Khachaturov was merely the head of the garrison. The leader in that regard was Seyran Ohanyan. Nor was Mikael Harutyunyan. But that whole operation was led by another man — the one who later became the president of our Republic. Serzh Sargsyan was to become, was he not, the president of the Republic of Armenia? For whom had all these people come? For Serzh Sargsyan, was it not? So does the country’s prime minister bear no responsibility for what happened in the country?”
Serzh Sargsyan’s lawyer, Amram Makinyan, told Azatutyun only that he does not comment on other people’s thoughts or wishes. The former president has been questioned as a witness in the March 1 case.
In the indictment of the criminal case against Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, it is stated that the Deputy Minister of Defence — Yerevan garrison chief Yuri Khachaturov — and the administration created by order 0038 were stationed in the building of the Armenian government. And that Khachaturov organised the work of the garrison, as well as established control over the preservation of military equipment and other material resources moved to Yerevan.
Colonel Armen Sargsyan, according to the charge, had organised the process of publishing the top-secret order 0038 in the press.
The official website of the judicial information system states that both Armen Sargsyan and his former employee Lucia Ayvazyan pleaded guilty, and the trial proceeded under an accelerated procedure.
Armen Sargsyan, 62, however, in a conversation with Azatutyun nine years after his conviction, insisted that he is innocent and had nothing to do with declassifying the top-secret order: “In 2008 I avoided it, my subordinates did it. I was fully informed and participated in all the processes that took place in the Republic of Armenia. I was to address and accommodate all the units required by that order… Why only from Karabakh? Whatever was reserved by that order, functions were reserved for me as well. And I was to carry out the functions reserved by that order ex officio, through the heads of departments and services of my administration.”
On 15 December 2009, the daily Haykakan Zhamanak published an excerpt of the secret order 0038 dated 23 February 2008 under the title “Order for a Military Coup,” the information in which is considered a state secret.
Colonel Armen Sargsyan has insisted that he did not pass the text of any order to anyone. He simply appeared on the authorities’ blacklist after the March events because he was opposed to the movement of troops. That also became the reason he left the Ministry of Defence, which was followed by criminal prosecution against him. And he was forced to plead guilty because, as he claims, pressure even began to be exerted on his 12-year-old son.
