EXCLUSIVE TO USA ARMENIAN LIFE MAGAZINE
BY LUCINE KASBARIAN
USA ARMENIAN LIFE MAGAZINE | SEPT. 25, 2020
CAPTION: From Wikipedia: The POW/MIA flag was created for the National
League of Families of American Prisoners in Southeast Asia and officially
recognized by the U.S. Congress in conjunction with the Vietnam War
Prisoner of War/ Missing in Action issue, “as the symbol of our Nation’s
concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of
Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia,
thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the Nation.” Beyond
Southeast Asia, it has been a symbol for POW/MIAs from all U.S. wars.
Armenians the world over had a rude awakening on September 21 – the 29th anniversary of Armenia’s second independence. Military families professed their credible suspicions to the nation that their soldier sons are likely POWs (prisoners of war) in Azerbaijan and not the April War’s casualties they were made out to be by the State.
This announcement points to even larger elephants in the room: the overwhelming suspicion among Armenia’s populace that in deference to their Russian overlords, the Sargsyan regime’s criminal network deliberately weakened the Armenia-Artsakh military to lose the April War to Azerbaijan; that the indicted armed opposition group, Sasna Dzrer, intended to reveal just this; and the volumes spoken by the present Armenia/Artsakh regimes who have still not adequately investigated such grave allegations.
Speaking at a Yerevan press conference on Armenian Independence Day and organized by Noyan Tapan News Service, the parents of soldiers Misha Aghajanyan and Davit Hayrabedyan described their growing apprehensions about the official stories they were given about the demise of their sons. They were accompanied by defense lawyer Artak Galstyan and attorney Susanna Sargsyan, now in the process of presenting the cases to the authorities.
Photo Caption: Is this the tank where Armenian servicemen allegedly evaporated by immolation?
After one year of what many would describe as dithering, public loss of confidence in Andranik Kocharyan, lead investigator in the Committee on the Inquiry into the April War (aka the Pastahavaq Group) led Mr. Vardan Ghukasyan (aka “Dog”) to launch an independent investigation. A former member of the military police during the Sargsyan regime, Ghukasyan faced threats in Armenia and fled to California just prior to the Velvet Revolution.
In a video communique on September 15, Ghukasyan’s sources revealed that there were likely several Armenian servicemen missing in action and most likely POWs captured during the April War. One such person identified within Azerbaijan was soldier Davit Hayrapetyan. Ghukasyan shared his discoveries with Davit’s parents, Razmik and Marine Hayrapetyan of Marduni, Armenia, as well as Kamo and Zafahir Aghajanyan of Abaran, Armenia — parents of another purportedly deceased soldier, Misha Aghajanyan.
Suspicions were already brewing among these families that all was not as it appeared to be when representatives from the military presented them with sealed caskets that they were forbidden to open to bid farewell to their martyred sons’ remains.
Armed with additional information from Ghukasyan, they demanded greater government accountability, upon which they were told that the bodies were in a grave state of decay and cautioned that if they insisted on opening the caskets, they would have to reimburse the state for their military pensions and the honorary state funeral fees. These inquiries only led to stranger circumstances. “What individual posing as a state official comes to the house of the bereaved at 11 pm to propose that we go visit our son’s grave together?”, asked the Hayrapetyans. “It’s more likely these were former KGB agents checking to see if we accepted the official story.”
The Hayrapetyan family’s living son, working in Moscow, discussed the case with his Azeri co-worker, also based in Moscow. The coworker freely spoke about Armenian POWs from the April War in Azeri possession – a claim supported by Azerbaijan at the cessation of hostilities on April 9, 2016 but denied by the Armenian authorities. According to the Hayrapetyans, when the co-worker contacted his friends in Azerbaijan to proffer video footage as proof, said Azeri was seized by the Moscow authorities the following day.
When the Aghajanyan family articulated their suspicion about the fate of their son Misha, Armenian authorities offered them a house if they would drop their inquiries. Mrs. Zafahir spoke of how, since her son’s vanishing, none of his military comrades have come to pay their respects. No one spoke to or greeted the parents when Zafahir and her husband visited the military compound that housed their son. The Aghajanyans believe the soldiers are being silenced.
Many other clues signal a sloppy cover-up. The Aghjanyans were told that their son burned beyond recognition in a tank fired on by Azeris. “If that’s the case, said Galstyan, “the military ID in Davit’s possession would have been destroyed as well. Otherwise, how did they identify the deceased?” Gukasyan was able to obtain reports from the coroner and medical examiner. “How can the medical examiner record that pieces of string and fabric survived immolation when the human body did not? The coroner reported that the same serviceman sustained an exploded skull, back and legs. Why aren’t the reports consistent? In the other case, the medical examiner observed that the martyred had eaten a meal 4 hours before death. How can these recorded facts be determined if there are no tangible remains, as the Armenian government asserts?”
When the Aghajanyans demanded proof of death, they were taken to an abandoned tank on the battlefield. The authorities had even brought along a clergyman to “settle their souls.” Not only was the tank and its contents not charred as one would expect, but the Aghajanyans recognized that this particular tank had been lying dormant on that very spot since the Artsakh War of 1993. When they mentioned this detail, the official who brought them said “this is where I was told to take you.”
If true, these damning revelations add to an already festering suspicion that a 2016 Armenian military defeat had been choreographed in advance by the Sargsyan regime.
The Pastahavaq Group was charged with investigating allegations that the Armenian military was negligent during the conflict, including claims that soldiers were left without commanders, that there were fuel and arms shortages, and that there were severe lapses in military intelligence.
We know of retired Army General Manvel Grigoryan, accused of embezzling food supplies, military vehicles and weapons intended for the Artsakh army. We know of our starving servicemen and the decrepit military vehicles they were obliged to employ on the battlefront. We know how soldiers died on the field because more than one tank had no gasoline. We know that many more questions remain unanswered about why and how Armenian forces relinquished 800 hectares of land.
Soldiers serving during the April War reported to Ghukasyan that by April 3, 2016, ammunition and nourishment had run out. When minimal fortifications arrived, both the food and ammunition were spoiled beyond redemption, far beyond their expiration dates. On the battlefield, the soldiers were forbidden by their leaders to advance or return fire, assist their fellow soldiers, request reinforcements, receive more ammunition, or obtain working vehicles. Those who did were punished. Ghukasyan was quick to point out that those soldiers who fled from their tanks were not deserters, as some authorities may wish to charge. Their useless vehicles were sitting ducks, unable to advance, retreat, or fire. When the Israeli-made drones overhead threatened to explode the dormant tanks, who could blame Armenian soldiers for attempting to escape? Thus we can envision how they could have become POWs.
Said Artak Galsytan, “What is the reason, after Armenia’s Velvet Revolution, for this issue to remain unresolved if the Sargsyan regime is well and truly gone? If Armenia is really a free nation and celebrating its independence on this day, then our government must act accordingly.” He said that the very first order of business is for the State to “open the caskets and show us our dead. If the bodies are not there, then explanations must be forthcoming and we must engage the Red Cross to begin a search for our boys.”
Armenian nationals conjecture that the criminal elements responsible for these unspeakable deeds acted to maintain their elite status and stranglehold over the people of Armenia and Artsakh by sacrificing them as one would pawns on a chess board. That they sought to placate Russia who acknowledges that Azerbaijan’s fighting force could not win a confrontation with Armenian fighters through legitimate means.
These military families have repeatedly requested an audience with the Pashinyans who have turned them down, stoking accusations that former president Sargsyan and current Prime Minister Pashinyan are, figuratively speaking, “one and the same person.”
The timing of such revelations four years after the April War is no doubt springing from those who are concluding that the now “so-called” Velvet Revolution has not brought about the desired outcome.
Apparently, such casual disregard for human life is not reserved for servicemen missing in action. During a September 12 visit to the Syunik province, the Premier was approached by the wife of Narek Sardaryan, a Khndzoresk civilian held captive in Azerbaijan ever since he unwittingly strayed from the border while cattle grazing this past July. She asked for any information about her husband. A rushed Pashinyan responded that, unfortunately, he could not provide any, while an equally rushed Defense Minister Tonoyan replied that he would get back to her.
If the allegations about the fate of soldiers such as Hayrapetyan and Aghajanyan bear out, the prevailing thinking is that Sasna Dzrer, who rebelled against these gross betrayals, is today being tried for treason for exposing these treacheries, while the man at the helm when this great treason took place, former President Sargsyan, is roaming free. In 2016, decorated Artsakh war veteran Jirayr Sefilian expressed readiness to establish a battalion to retrieve lost lands and stand up for the 100+ martyred during the April War. Soon after, he was imprisoned by the authorities on trumped up charges of weapons possession. A wide segment of Armenia’s citizenry understand that the Dzrers rebelled to expose State crimes against the Armenian nation, not to endure a transfer of power to another regime that could simply cover up such sordid acts.
Said attorney Sargsyan, “First, we learn that in Armenia’s hospitals today, newborns are snatched away and sold to traffickers while their mothers are told that their babies died in childbirth, and now this. An Armenian family struggles to raise a child to legal age, after which he patriotically serves his country, sacrifices the most valuable thing he has to offer – his life and liberty – only to discover that our government could be betraying us and lying about his fate? Who can survive this kind of existence?”
If these assertions are without foundation, let the Armenian and Artsakh governments set the matter straight with sensible answers.
Time and again, Armenians have rallied to repel “barbarians at the gates.” However, Armenia’s greatest losses have often been sustained when they have fought traitors from within. Even if you do not hear about these suspected transgressions elsewhere, know that today’s Armenia is at real risk of disappearing from the map. As Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia and Israel raise their stakes against Armenia and Artsakh, these devastating disclosures must be addressed and resolved quickly if Armenians are to have any confidence that their authorities are honest brokers behind their own service- and countrymen.
The people of the traditional Diaspora must stop begging for validation from the Republic of Armenia. We must recognize our value and the power we wield. Those who have not been indoctrinated by a Soviet mindset must be the force that can steer our nation in the right direction, with or without the consent of the Armenian government.
We must join hands with fellow lay Armenians to insist upon prisoner exchanges and much more. We can do this by withholding funds from Armenian organizations and charities in Armenia and Artsakh, supporting groups such as The Armenian National Initiative for the Return of Prisoners of War, and using other means at our disposal to disinfect our disease-infested nation. If our Diasporan organizations are unresponsive to our calls for action, we should freeze our donations to them, as well.
Based on the steps taken by the Pashinyan regime, the public should then be prepared to demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross intervene, citing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and demand that the Pashinyan and Harutyunian regimes enact prisoner exchanges with Azerbaijan.
Calls to action:
- To follow this issue, visit the Armenian National Initiative for the Return of Prisoners of War on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freedomforheroes/?notif_id=1600840127838195¬if_t=group_invited_to_group&ref=notif
- Contact officials in Armenia and Artsakh listed below to state that you are withholding all donations to their charities and appeals until the Pashinyan and Harutyunyan regimes authorize the opening of caskets of purportedly deceased servicemen.
- Contact your Diasporan Armenian organization of choice and tell them that you expect them to contact the governments of Armenia and Artsakh to prioritize retrieving POWs and those missing in action and that you will withhold donations until they announce that they have done so.
- Contact the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity’s Office of the Prosecutor and state that you are writing to support forthcoming legal claims made against the Sargsyan regime: otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
CONTACTS:
- The Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia https://www.gov.am/en/staff-structure/
- The Office of the Prime Minister of Artsakh
- The Office of the President of Armenia https://www.president.am/en/Feedback/
- Office of the Defense Ministry of Armenia
(Telephone hotline: 1-28 (+37412) 21-00-00)
- Etchmiadzin Renovation Project http://cathedral.am/contact-us/
- Anna Hakobyan-Pashinyan’s My Step Foundation and City of Smile Foundation: info@mystep.foundation
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To view the Noyan Tapan press conference, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcEHNmFVmjM&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-fr&attr_tag=PF6moWh1-oIZCssz%3A6
To view Vardan Ghukasyan’s testimony, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN9ert0fero
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucine Kasbarian is a writer, editor, publicist and political cartoonist, Lucine has worked in the publishing industry for more than 30 years.
Visit her at: www.lucinekasbarian.com