Armenian side fails in attempt to pass off saboteurs as lost soldiers

POLITICS  27 May 2023 - 15:02

As Caliber.Az previously reported,  on May 26, at the conditional border of Azerbaijan and Armenia near the village of Razdere in the Zangilan district, Azerbaijani border guards foiled an attempt by a sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Armenian armed forces to violate the state border. Two Armenian saboteurs - Kharut Yurikovich Khovakimyan and Karen Ashotovich Gazaryan were detained with full arms and ammunition.

As expected, some 40-45 minutes after the first reports surfaced that the Armenian saboteurs were detained by Azerbaijani border troops, the Armenian Defence Ministry, having recovered from the shock, tried to deny the information. As usual, it was rather clumsy. According to a report by the Armenian Ministry of Defence, "The information circulated in the Azerbaijani media about an alleged attempt by the Armenian side to sabotage the south-eastern part of the border zone is an absolute lie and does not correspond to reality.

Then, already at midnight, the Armenian Defence Ministry reported that "communication has been lost with two RA Armed Forces servicemen supplying food to the combat positions".

Today at noon, after a long night vigil, the Ministry of Defence put on a whole show with the "found" logistics truck with food and water, which had allegedly disappeared the day before. That is, they simply drove the Kamaz truck to a wooded area, made several photos from a convenient angle, and voila - the version is ready. "Weapons attached to one of the soldiers were also found in the recovered vehicle. This shows that even if the soldiers got out of the car and could not get their bearings on the ground, they could not have had a sabotage purpose," the report says.

But here's the trouble - the footage clearly shows the assault rifle without...a cartridge clip. A silly mistake? Definitely, because it is difficult to imagine soldiers moving along the inter-position road, in close proximity to enemy posts, with a machine gun without a clip. On the other hand, what kind of an army is it that the commanders do not know where their soldiers are with their vehicles?

Apparently, due to the failure of this operation and the subsequent disappearance of members of the "reconnaissance group", there are probably heated discussions going on in the Armenian capital about how to knock out and present this situation in the best possible way.

Under such circumstances, it can be assumed that the Armenian side will come up with more and more "details" and versions of the circumstances surrounding the "disappearance" of its soldiers. The purpose of this approach is obvious - to play innocent, and thus to divert attention from the failure of the operation.

This strategy is likely to be used to cover up their mistakes and failures, to shift attention away from their actions, and to evade responsibility.

Caliber.Az