Misunderstanding Occurred: Kocharyan on Statement Regarding the General Staff

There is no logic that a large-scale war can start after these Azerbaijani shots. This was stated by Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, during a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly.

“We must do everything to prevent a full-scale war, but if it starts, what needs to be done today should not be postponed to tomorrow so that we can respond to Azerbaijan's such intentions,” said Kocharyan.

Referring to his statement about the General Staff made yesterday, he noted, “There was a misunderstanding; first, I must say that border delimitation issues are being discussed in the committee, and regarding the General Staff, I probably wanted to say that the opinion of the General Staff should be primary in terms of organizing such works. This means that the committee performs its tasks, and naturally, to formulate those tasks correctly, we need to have expert opinions from various agencies, while the opinion of the General Staff should be one of the most important.”

It is worth reminding that yesterday, in response to a question from journalists on why the delimitation started specifically from Tavush, Kocharyan had said, “It is clear, isn’t it? When we started from that section, it means that somewhere, in some closed room, some state security body looked at where it was more appropriate and found it that way; this is called the General Staff.”

Regarding their agenda to achieve peace, Kocharyan emphasized that achieving peace is much more complex than waging war. “Ultimately, all wars end one day, and people strive for peace. In order to reach peace, we must daily enhance the capabilities of our armed forces in the defense sector,” he stated.

Regarding media reports that EU members demand the removal of pro-Russian officials, for example, General Staff Chief Edward Asryan, to fulfill their promises, he responded, “Asryan is not a pro-Russian. Asryan is our Chief of General Staff, who at the moment, when such questions arise, is busy solving the concrete problem of army building.”