ARMENIA SHAKES UP MILITARY TOP BRASS

BY RUZANNA STEPANIAN | Azatutyun

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has dismissed the first deputy chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, Lieutenant- General Kamo Kochunts, and appointed nine other senior officers to the top brass. 

Kochunts was replaced by Colonel Artur Yeroyan through a presidential decree initiated by Pashinian and made public late on Tuesday. Yeroyan, 46, has headed the Armenia’s main military academy until now. 

Two other deputy army chiefs of staff were named on Wednesday. The other appointed officials include the new heads of three General Staff divisions. 

No official explanations were given for these appointments. Gagik Melkonian, a pro-government lawmaker and retired army general, said they are part of ongoing defense reforms announced by the Armenian government. 

“There will be more changes in the General Staff as it’s clear that we are buying new military hardware and are going to change our previous mode of governance,” he told RFE/ RL’s Armenian Service. 

Melkonian denied any connection between Kochunts’s sacking and the latest Azerbaijani ceasefire violation that left four Armenian soldiers dead early on Tuesday. He said that the 61-year-old veteran of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war, who had also fought in Afghanistan in Soviet army ranks, was replaced because of his age. 

The Yerevan newspaper Hraparak, which predicted Kochunts’s dismissal earlier this month, claimed on Wednesday that the General Staff chief, Lieutenant-General Eduard Asrian, could also lose his job soon. 

Asrian’s predecessor, Artak Davtian, and six other generals were sacked in February 2022 one year after the top brass issued a statement accusing Pashinian’s government of incompetence and misrule and demanding its resignation. Asrian was among the signatories of the statement welcomed by the Armenian opposition but condemned by Pashinian as a coup attempt. 

Pashinian promised a major reform of the military shortly after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He has replaced three defense ministers since then. The current minister, Suren Papikian, is a leading member of his Civil Contract party. 

Opposition groups blame Pashinian for the outcome of the six-week war that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. They also say that his administration is doing little to rebuild the armed forces.