Armenian Major General Admits to ‘Working With Soldiers’ Ahead of Elections

Major General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, Armenia’s former deputy defense minister also known as Komandos, has admitted in an interview with Azatutyun.am that while he was a senior military officer, he would periodically go to military units during elections campaigns to “carry out works” with soldiers. At the same time, however, Ter-Tadevosyan, who was the leader of the Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, is convinced that military personnel should not engage in partisan political activity.

“Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan wants real reforms; I therefore want to stand by him to pass my experience onto him. I’m against military personnel engaging in politics,” Ter-Tadevosyan said of his decision to support Republican Party candidate Vigen Sargsyan in Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for April 2.

The current defense minister, he added, has a broader worldview and realizable ideas; “I met with him because I wanted to know… He is not a military man, he has just been appointed a military leader. After several meetings, I realized that under his leadership our army will become stronger.”

When asked whether he thought former defense minister Seyran Ohanyan did not possess the above-mentioned qualities, Ter-Tadevosyan said he did not want to discuss Ohanyan’s negative traits. Instead, the Major General insisted that during the last April escalation of the NKR conflict, Ohanyan “did a lot to enhance the soldier.” At the same time, he argued that defense minister Sargsyan toping the Republican electoral list did not contribute to the army’s involvement in the political process.

“Let someone say that Arkady Ivanich and the minister have gone to the soldiers and told them to vote for the Republican Party. That has never happened. We have only had meetings with our veterans.

“In the past, everyone would go to the army, including myself. The Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) would send us there… We used to be from PANM… We would all go; we would not directly tell the soldiers to vote for PANM, but we would work with them…” Ter-Tadevosyan said.

When asked how many political forces he has campaigned for, the Major General replied; “Well, I’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been serving. I haven’t campaigned for the Republicans though… Not yet.”