Former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan wrote the following on his Telegram channel:

“Yesterday former head of the National Security Service of Armenia Mikayel Hambardzumyan gave an interview in which he particularly declared the following:

1. The National Security Service knew that there was going to be a war, and it had informed Nikol and the Security Council about this.

2. Three to four days after the war broke out, it became clear that the situation on the military front was disastrously unfavorable. We reported this to the Prime Minister, Onik Gasparyan and Davit Tonoyan. There was an agreement that the war had to be stopped.

3. Nikol was thoroughly informed about the situation on the military front, and WE COULDN’T UNDERSTAND why he wasn’t taking steps to stop the war.

4. After surrendering, we realized that on October 20 the Russian side made an offer for peace, but Nikol declined it.

Regardless of my attitude towards Mikayel Hambardzumyan, this interview is very in-depth, important and literate. This is the third top officer who is shedding light on the actions that Nikol Pashinyan was taking during the war. It is necessary to remember the context — October 20th was in the middle of the war, the Armenian side suffered great losses, but if a peace deal was sealed on the 20th, it would be peace after defeat, not capitulation. Today it is already clear that the top officers had fully informed Nikol about the situation on the military front. Nikol was premeditatedly concealing the peace proposals from the members of the Security Council. It’s already clear that Nikol solely decided to continue the war, even after specialists had talked about the risk of continuing the war. The most important thing is that we all know that Nikol was proposed scenarios to end the war before and after October 20th, but Nikol had declined. The following conclusions are painful:

1. This is a deliberate and well-planned tactic.

2. Nikol has a plan — he came to power to advance the interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey. He is still implementing this plan. If anyone thinks everything is over, that person is wrong since things are in progress.”