In response to the November 17, 2020 statement of former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Onnik Gasparyan, the Office of the Security Council has presented clarifications regarding certain claims and published declassified documents related to him.
Accordingly, noting that back in November Gasparyan had stated that he was appointed to the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces on June 8, 2020, and that by June 12 he had already presented an analysis of the region’s military-political situation and the capabilities of the armed forces to the Prime Minister of Armenia, and a few days later also to the Security Council, the NSC Office announced today, April 15, that at the Security Council session of June 19, which followed Gasparyan’s appointment, Onnik Gasparyan was not on the list of rapporteurs (there were two rapporteurs at the session).
Referring to Onnik Gasparyan’s November 17 statement regarding the need to stop the war on its 4th day, the NSC Office presented certain excerpts recorded from Gasparyan’s report at the Security Council session of September 30, 2020: – “Mr. Prime Minister, in essence, the situation is tactically unchanged, that is, the adversary has made no progress…” adding: “… In any case, the troops are carrying out their task; this morning we launched a small counter-strike in the direction of Jabrayil, we had successes…”, concluding his speech, he noted: – “This is the situation, we continue to carry out our task and will continue to carry it out to the end.”
In the context of this clarification, the NSC Office also presented the minutes of the Security Council session of August 21, 2020, where Onnik Gasparyan in particular says: “… In the direction of the eastern operation….. and in the direction of the north-eastern operation, with the available forces and means, we are able to repel, according to the principle of ‘not one step back’, to fail the adversary’s attack and to crush its groupings, …” adding that: “… I see the solution to a significant part of the problems within the framework of the creation and establishment of a militia…”
“This expresses Mr. Gasparyan’s position regarding the created military-political situation and makes his approaches on this matter more complete as of that given moment,” was stated in today’s NSC announcement.
Let us recall that Gasparyan had stated on November 17 that on the 4th day of the war, at the Security Council session, he had presented the Armenian side’s losses and the Armed Forces’ assessment of the created situation, and had proposed taking the necessary measures within two or three days to stop the war.
