SEYRAN OHANIAN: JUNE 21 INCIDENT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF PROTECTON OF
HONOR AND THERE IS NO NEED TO POLITICIZE IT

STEPANAKERT, JULY 4, NOYAN TAPAN. The June 21 incident was
“exclusively conditioned by offensive expressions addressed to the
honor of the Defence Army, my battle friends and personally to my
honor and dignity by our former companion-in-arms Pavel Manukian. I
consider irrelevant to quote these expressions for well-known
reasons,” NKR Defence Minister Seyran Ohanian declared in his
explanations given to the Artsakh Public Television. “I don’t mean a
personal insult, I consider it incompatible with the insult addressed
to the Defence Army and my battle friends. There are values that
mustn’t be discredited. No one has such a right, especially as the
person who is well aware of the details of the fighting way passed by
his friends. As an Armenian, as a soldier, as a person having felt the
price of our victory on my own back, I wasn’t able to control myself
when an attempt to throw mud at our army and its commanders, my
companions-in-arms was made,” Seyran Ohanian mentioned. He assured
that “one mustn’t look for a political implication here, especially
against the whole political party having a long biography of devotion
to its nation, ARF Dashnaktsutiun.” “Both we, servicemen, and the
Dashnaktsutiun, have always preserved the honor of an Armenian officer
and army. Therefore, I couldn’t tolerate such conduct by a former
officer at a level of personal relations,” Seyran Ohanian emphasized.
“I don’t think that the insults addressed to the Defence Army, my
friends and personally to me can be connected with any political force
acting in the Armenian reality. <…>. It’s also obvious that
connecting this incident with the elections is quite groundless. A
simple truth follows from this: there is no need to politicize a thing
that isn’t liable to politicization. I assure that the incident was
only a matter of protection of honor as the honor and homeland are at
the same level for an officer. To recap, on June 21, Pavel Manukian,
an ARF member, a candidate for NKR MP, a participant of Artsakh
liberation movement, was beaten in NKR Defence Minister’s cabinet, in
consequence of which he got a concussion.