On 18 November, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed Movses Hakobyan from the post of the country’s Chief Military Inspector along with two of his deputies, reported news.am.

Andranik Kocharyan, a member of the ruling My Step faction and Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security, stated that the sacking was a result of Hakobyan’s institute causing problems.

“The prime minister’s decision to dismiss me and my deputies from office is linked only to structural reforms. The prime minister’s decisions are not subject to any discussion. Do not look for ulterior motives,” Hakobyan told Tert.am. Asked whether his status as a witness in the “March 1” criminal case could have contributed to the move, the former defense official dismissed any connection to the proceeding. “It is absolutely unrelated to the case. Just open the decision to get familiarized with the justifications,” he added. Hakobyan also denied the reports attributing the somewhat unexpected move on the April 2016 heavy offensives along the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) frontline. He said he hasn’t been invited to the parliament committee investigating the circumstances behind the Four-Day War.

Hakobyan was the former commander of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army until 2018. He was also regarded as a suspect on the events following the elections from 1 March 2008. Hakobyan denied having any involvement in the case. Recalling that in those years he served as the Minister of Defense of Nagorno-Karabakh, Hakobyan noted that he knew the order number 0038, which ordered the Armenian military to “confine to barracks the entire personnel of the Armed Forces starting from 23 February  until receiving a special command, to set officer groups in the departments of the central apparatus of the Defense Ministry and separate divisions and arm them with government-issue weapon”, following the political tensions in the country. When asked what his reaction was, Hakobyan replied that the response was appropriate to the military’s position.