Iravunq: ‘Pandora box’ is hidden in Shushi, says former defense official

^{© Photo: Caucasus Watch}

Why wasn’t the Armenian army prepared for wars? Which were our ommissions, and how did Shushi fall? For “long-awaited” clarifications on these and other questions, the paper talked to Colonel-General Movses Hakobyan, a former defense minister of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and a former chief of the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia.

“I have certainly conducted analysis and arrived at specific conclusions – as to the causes accounting for such ][tragic] outcomes. For more comprehensive studies, however, the Ministry of Defense needs to create a special commission to conduct a [more] detailed analysis of all the actions (starting from the initial days of the war) that do not attract attention at first sight but contain real great underlying obstacles. Only their exposure can help reveal the real causes of our defeat,” he said, expressing also a firm belief that the adversary troops targeted the fortress town of Shushi "shortly after the outbreak" of the military hostilities.

“My overall opinion is that the ‘Pandora box’ is hidden in Shushi,” Hakobyan said, admitting at the same time that the Armenian army was not sufficiently prepared for the war actions.

But Hakobyan didn’t agree that the kind of outcome was originally predetermined.

“Our problem consists in ‘mismanagement’; that’s it,” he said, appreciating also time the Armenian soldiers’ feat "to do the impossible".

Asked whether there were chances to stop the war earlier, Hakobyan highlighted the “poor air defense” as the major factor behind the reported failures.  

Neither did he agree that the recent war was “comparable” to the April 2016 four-day fighting.

Noting that the national army has “numerous priorities, the former defense official stressed especially the importance re-organization and the capacity-building to meet the challenges of a fifth-generation war.

Meantime, he emphasized also the need of active diplomatic efforts. “Only as a result of a mutually effective work will it be possible to resist the challenges. And the fact that those challenges exist – and vary in number – is, unfortunately, an undeniable fact,” he added.