Will the army of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh be disbanded?

Baku/03.02.21/Turan: Former Armenian Defense Minister, Seyran Ohanyan, actually confirmed that Pashinyan's team decided, in agreement with Baku and Moscow, to eliminate the Armenian armed forces in Karabakh - the so-called "Artsakh self-defense army." Rumors about this are actively discussed in Karabakh and Armenia.

“According to the Constitution, the Republic of Armenia is the guarantor of the security of the Republic of Artsakh, and in this situation it is necessary to make a decision on what the Defense Army should be like. I think that at least in some composition it should remain, but what it should be is up to the current leadership," former Defense Minister of Armenia, and earlier of Karabakh, Seyran Ohanyan stated to the Armenian media.

The first to warn the Armenians about the impending demilitarization in Karabakh was the leader of the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan. On January 25, at a meeting of the Security Council, he said, “We still have to make difficult decisions. After dialogue with the public about political decisions, we must take into account public sentiments, and present them with the real situation. Why am I highlighting this? After the war of 94, we lived on an agenda, where we always talked about pressing challenges, but did not take into account the real threat and its dimensions."

Another indirect confirmation of the dissolution of the “army” is considered the creation of the “Ministry of Internal Affairs” in Karabakh, which includes the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the police. There are rumors that in parallel with the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Karabakh, the function of protecting the population and internal security will be carried out by a limited contingent of police forces of the Armenians of Karabakh, and the peacekeeping forces of Russia will protect them from external threats, that is, from Azerbaijan.

The fourth paragraph of the Statement of the leaders of the three countries dated November 10, 2020 is called the legal basis for this process: "The peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is deployed in parallel with the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces."

Armenia and Karabakh now understand why the Azerbaijani and Russian armed forces do not allow the Armenian military to return to Karabakh. Dissatisfied with the sending of their sons to Karabakh, Armenian parents said that the General Staff was trying to send soldiers in civilian clothes like ordinary residents. However, after the capture of a large number of Armenian soldiers in Karabakh, parents in Armenia launched a public campaign against the service of the country's citizens in Karabakh.

Tigran Abrahamyan, head of the Opinion Point analytical center, did not rule out that the actions of parents against sending military personnel to Karabakh have the tacit support of the political leadership. Abrahamyan suggests that there are secret agreements between Yerevan and Baku on the further deployment of the Armenian armed forces.

"The parents' concern and their questions to the military-political leadership is quite understandable. The cases of the capture of soldiers after the signing of the armistice caused quite fair alarm in the Armenian society. But at the same time, I consider it extremely dangerous to discuss whether or not to serve in Karabakh," - noted Abrahamyan in an interview with Sputnik-Armenia. He believes that the termination of military assistance to Karabakh, including in the form of sending military personnel, will lead to its final loss.

In Yerevan, they say that all citizens of Armenia in Azerbaijani captivity will be released after the signing of a document on the dissolution of the Karabakh army.

This information was actually confirmed by the ex-president of Armenia and the former leader of the Karabakh separatists Robert Kocharian. In his interview to a number of media outlets a few days ago, he stated that Baku demands from Yerevan to confirm that Armenia will not send its citizens to serve in Karabakh. Without meeting this demand Baku will not surrender the captured Armenians, Kocharian is sure.

The proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group on a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict implied the protection of the security of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh by local security forces and the police, within the framework of broad self-government of the Armenian population within Azerbaijan. –0—