Post-2020 crisis: Armenian army's future at risk Says military analyst

Military expert Karen Vrtanesyan has raised serious concerns about the future of the Armenian army, suggesting that it will increasingly degenerate following November 9, 2020.

He attributes this deterioration to a troubling atmosphere surrounding servicemen, pervasive anti-propaganda against the Armenian military, and unfounded accusations directed at the command staff, Caliber.Az reports via Armenian media.

“According to my deep conviction, in recent years the current Armenian authorities have done everything to ruin the army, creating prerequisites for the dismissal of officers to the reserve. I repeat this is the result of the consistent policy of these authorities,” Vrtanesyan stated.

He illustrated his point with the tragic incident that occurred on January 19, 2023, when 15 servicemen died in a fire that broke out in the temporary barracks of the engineer-sapper company in the Gegharkunik (Bashkend) region. “The first thing the authorities did was to immediately dismiss the commanders of the unit and the corps without any proceedings. In short, they fired everyone, essentially decapitating the corps,” he explained.

Vrtanesyan noted that many Armenian officers have faced criminal cases, being accused of various offences that discredit the military, creating unbearable conditions for service. “A very understandable and natural consequence is that people do not want to serve in these conditions. And if, God forbid, someone dies in the course of service, they will also say that ‘he died for nothing.’ Everyone has seen what happened to those who died in the 44-day war and the wounded: people are underestimated or deprived of their disability category. The full list of the dead has not been published yet. In a word, seeing all this, no sane person will go to serve,” he asserted.

He further observed that in recent years, the Armenian authorities have attempted to compensate for the officer shortage through training camps. “The matter even reaches absurdity, when an officer who has just been demobilized after completing his service is immediately summoned to the training camp. However, in the opinion of our interlocutor, the military officers who come to training camps cannot make up for the shortage of regular officers,” Vrtanesyan noted.

He criticized the state support programs for military families and housing initiatives as ineffective, especially in the context of accusations against officers and the myth that they abandoned their soldiers on the battlefield during the war.

He recalls the times when citizens were regularly shown "mask shows" on television when one or another officer was detained, as well as reports about allegedly solving another case of "treason against the Motherland." 

"And this is despite the fact that only a small part of these cases reach the court,” he said.

Vrtanesyan emphasized that although authorities promote various support programs, young people are reluctant to pursue military careers in an environment where the state level suggests that the army is weak and incapable of resisting Azerbaijan. “Tales of reforms have been told by members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's team every year since they came to power. However, after November 9, 2020, the army is increasingly degraded. What reforms are they talking about?” Vrtanesyan concluded.

By Tamilla Hasanova