Head of the Henaket Analytical Center Tigran Abrahamyan on Wednesday reacted to the statement of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the dismissal of the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, Onik Gasparyan, by virtue of law.

The statement said Gasparyan is considered relieved of his post from March 10 after the president failed to sign a draft decree on his dismissal within the established timeframe and refrained from asking the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of the PM’s decision to sack him.

“The prime minister is taking hesitant steps to destroy the main and still standing pillar of our statehood. It’s another matter that General Gasparyan, to put it mildly, disagrees with this decision from a national, legislative, political and moral point of view, and has no intention to step back and leave,” Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook.

“Can the prime minister expect that the chief of the General Staff will leave without serious concessions? Of course no. Even if they try to appoint a new General Staff chief, the staff will not obey him until Onik Gasparyan urges them to do so.

“I do not know whether the government will ask, force or come to an agreement with any military officer to assume this post, but, factually, such a person cannot enjoy a high reputation in the military, in other words, cannot have his orders obeyed.

“To put it simply, the authorities have taken a path leading to the collapse of the army and the state, which must be prevented by the institutions and politicians who realize all this and the whole nation,” the analyst said.