Epress.am News from Armenia
Civilnet.am reporter Tatul Hakobyan has found inaccuracies in the official biography of Armenian President, head of the ruling Republican Party Serzh Sargsyan. With some omissions, below is presented the English translation of the article.
– Serzh Sargsyan's official biography states that “from 1989 to 1993, [the President] led the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Self-Defense Forces Committee.” This claim, however, is debatable, if not entirely inaccurate
Firstly, there has never been a “Self-Defense Forces Committee” in Artsakh. There is no mention of this body on any document. Artsakh had a Self-Defense Army, led by commander Arkady Karapetyan, more commonly known as “Dashnak Ago.”
In late December of 1991, parliamentary elections were held in Artsakh, and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) member Artur Mkrtchyan was elected the head of the Supreme Council of the unrecognised state. Due to the lack of a presidential system in Artsakh, Mkrtchyan was the de facto head of state.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who had been elected President in Armenia, couldn't have been happy with this fact. In view of the deep ideological differences between ARF and Ter-Petrosyan, the latter was endorsing the two leaders of the local network of the Pan-Armenian National Movement, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan.
The Parliament of Artsakh was formed in January, 1992, and Sargsyan was appointed the head of the Defense Committee as part of first Prime Minister Oleg Yesayan's Government. If by “NKR Self-Defense Forces Committee” the President's biography meant the above-mentioned position, then he held it not in 1989-1993, but for only seven months – from January to August in 1992.
On August 10, 1992, Artsakh's Government was dissolved, and instead the State Defense Committee was formed, led by Robert Kocharyan. In this seven-member Committee Serzh Sargsyan was appointed an army minister, and Samvel Babayan – the commander.of the army It's a well-known fact that Samvel Babayan was the actual commander of the defense forces. Moreover, the relationship between Bababyan and Sargsyan was not so good, and when Levon Ter-Petrosyan invited Sargsyan to Armenia in August, 1993, to appoint him Defense Minister, Sargsyan Arrived in Yerevan not from Stepanakert, but from Moscow, where he had spent several months.
By NKR Self-Defense Forces Committee, Serzh Sargsyan's biographers presumably meant Artsakh's defense system as a whole, which comprised a number of troop commanders and politicians, including Serzh Sargsyan. Following Sargsyan's move to Armenia, Samvel Babayan, the head of the defense system of Artsakh, was listed in official documents as "NKR Defense Minister" and/or "NKR Army Commander."
Sargsyan's official biography also says that “from 1979 to 1988, Sargsyan was first a Division Head at the Stepanakert City Communist Party Youth Association Committee, then—second secretary, first secretary, the Stepanakert City Committee Propaganda Division Head, the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Committee Communist Organizations’ Unit Instructor, and Assistant to Genrikh Poghosyan, the First Secretary of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Committee.”
Thus, until 1988, Serzh Sargsyan was a communist. According to his official biography, “Sargsyan is a member of the Republican Party of Armenia since 2006. From July 2006 to November 2007, he was the Chairman of the Party Council. In November 2007, Serzh Sargsyan was elected as the RPA Chairman.”
The official biography fails to mention the fact that Sargsyan was also a member of the Armenian National Movement. In November of 1989, when the first congress of the Pan-Armenian National Movement was held, Serzh Sargsyan was a delegate from Artsakh.