Onik Gasparyan’s statetment is being manipulated

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel General Onik Gasparyan issued a statement on November 17, detailing the events that occurred before and during the war in Artsakh.

The statement was manipulated in the press by many social network users. It is often presented in excerpts, distorting the full context of Onik Gasparyan’s message.

How is Onik Gasparyan’s message distorted

Former Republican MP Mihran Hakobyan referred to Onik Gasparyan’s statement on his Facebook page, quoting only one sentence: “Onik Gasparyan stated that on the fourth day of the war he appealed to the Prime Minister to stop the war.  Mikayel Minasyan announced that during the war, the so-called prime minister was offered options to stop the war.”

Political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan published a photo with a sentence from Onik Gasparyan’s statement, which, however, distorts and does not fully represent the opinion of the Chief of the General Staff.

What did the Chief of General Staff really say?

In his statement, Onik Gasparyan noted: “On the fourth day of the war, during the Security Council meeting, I introduced data on our losses, and assessment of the situation by the Armed Forces, noting that within two or three days it is necessary to take measures to stop the war.”

Then Chief of the General Staff added: “At a certain stage, all attempts and proposals to stop the war were rejected by Turkey and Azerbaijan, and we were forced to continue hostilities, trying to inflict heavy losses on the enemy and force him to sit at the negotiating table.”

In other words, Chief of General Staff Onik Gasparyan claimed that on the fourth day of the war, he spoke at the Security Council meeting about the need to end the war, emphasizing that attempts were made to end the war at some stage, but were rejected by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Thus, the press distorted Onik Gasparyan’s message, introducing his opinion that on the fourth day of the war he raised the need for an end to the war, but without mentioning that the Chief of General Staff also said that steps were taken to end the war, but were not accepted by Turkey or Azerbaijan.

Loosineh Voskanyan