Yerevan: Arayik Harutyunyan acknowledged during a court hearing that decisions regarding military strikes deep into Azerbaijani territory were made in Armenia. He detailed that these decisions were observable during military exercises of the ‘Karabakh army’ in the summer and at the end of June, overseen by Armenia’s Chief of Staff, Onik Gasparyan.

According to Azeri-Press News Agency, Harutyunyan emphasized that these exercises were not clandestine operations but were conducted openly. He noted the presence of Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, who visited Karabakh at the end of the summer. Harutyunyan accompanied Pashinyan to various ‘army units,’ where the Prime Minister familiarized himself with the ongoing situation. Despite his presence, Harutyunyan stated that he did not receive any information from the ‘Karabakh defense committee’ and had no authority over the ‘army.’

Harutyunyan further clarified that the responsibility for the security of Armenians in Karabakh fell on Armenia, as consistently reported in the Armenian media. He reiterated that the Armenian armed forces and the ‘Karabakh defense army’ were integral to the region’s security management, thus highlighting Armenia’s accountability in the security issues concerning Karabakh.