Arbak Khachatryan: “Every era has its own values”

(How the seizure of Shahumyan was prevented by halting a session of the USSR Supreme Soviet)

The widely discussed interview published in the daily Aravot under the title ‘How the Sadakhlo checkpoint was opened and Georgian wheat came to Armenia’ not only documented newly revealed facts but also prompted an interest in other details. In particular, this concerned the part of the interview referring to independent human rights advocate and political analyst Arbak Khachatryan.

The largely veiled and noticeably ‘sparing’ reference by Sahak Salnazaryan, former head of Armenia’s Traffic Police, a police colonel and reserve officer, prompted us to approach him again, hoping to clarify details of unfamiliar pages from that period in the history of newly independent Armenia.

— In your interview with Aravot, you discussed events of historical importance. What is striking is that they involved people who played a substantial role in the life of newly independent Armenia but have never been mentioned to this day.

Unlike the well-known figures ‘on stage,’ their names have never circulated in the media. Why did you decide to recall the past only decades later, and why now? Is this connected with the current course of domestic political developments?

— Why now? Now, because our country is once again on the threshold of extremely serious trials. I firmly believe that, as the world enters a period of uncertainty and Armenia faces major internal and external problems, it is more important than ever to speak about real ‘crusaders,’ rather than ‘movie heroes.’ These are people whose mission is less to publicize their names and their ‘charity’ and score dividends for themselves than to truly help our country and support it by every possible and impossible means.

Arbak Khachatryan is precisely one of these people. Thanks to a number of steps he took in the difficult years of the 1990s, we managed to escape situations that seemed almost impossible.

Today, when times are again difficult for Armenia and the whole world, he is once more putting forward initiatives for the benefit of his homeland. I think it is worth emphasizing that, without ever being the ‘man’ of any government, including the current one, he has consistently managed to resolve issues vital to Armenia at an interstate level.

He is doing the same today. At his direct initiative, efforts to unite the intellectual circles of Armenia, the Russian Federation and Georgia have been underway for two years, and are already bearing fruit. Evidence of this was the statement by about 400 representatives of science, art and culture in neighboring Georgia pledging every possible form of support to Armenia as it suffered from coronavirus, and the gathering recently organized in that connection. Incidentally, perhaps few people know about the conference held in Tbilisi last year on stability in the South Caucasus, under the slogan ‘A New Generation for Peace.’

Besides youth organizations from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, representatives of the UN, the United States and Germany attended that highly representative conference. The idea and initiative for this far-reaching conference were also his. Many people may not know this either, because, unlike those who love fame, he is categorically opposed to having people talk about him. In my view, however, today it is time to speak out about Arbak and all those who bear their cross without complaint. I will speak about the extensive work he has done and is doing now…

— Please tell us…

— Where do I even begin? Should I tell you how, with help from Russian friends, back when the concept of an oligarch did not exist, he donated cars to Armenia’s newly established Traffic Police? Or how his support brought home 11 police officers from Kirovakan who had been arrested by USSR troops on the Armenian–Azerbaijani border, handed over to Azerbaijan and labeled militants? Meeting senior officials of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office at Moscow’s Sevastopol Hotel, Arbak Khachatryan arranged through them for a special investigative team to travel to Baku.

Ultimately, that investigative team managed to force Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor’s Office to transfer the case of the 11 Armenian police officers to the Armenian side and return the officers to Armenia. After Arbak’s call, we welcomed our officers at the Gazakh checkpoint on June 22; I was a battalion commander then. You should have seen the men’s reaction when they learned from the Union investigative committee that they would be returning home. In the interview I already spoke about the bombing of the Imir railway line and the wheat brought to Armenia from Georgia’s reserve fund. To learn who made it possible to transport wheat to Armenia through the Azerbaijani-populated Marneuli district during the war, you can ask Nodar Mumladze, the prefect of Marneuli at that time. (Following his advice, I contact Nodar Mumladze — author.)

‘If it had not been for Arbak and Mamuka (Ilia Gvarishvili), it is frightening even to think what would have happened to the cargo transported to Armenia through Marneuli.

It was solely their standing that made it possible to get the wheat to Armenia. What is more, without Mamuka and Arbak’s intervention, the bombed bridge would not have been restored either. Mamuka spent nights on the wheat train. As prefect, I did play a part in the wheat sent to Armenia in those days, but my contribution was very modest compared with what the men did.

It is a pity that Shevardnadze and Sigua (Georgia’s former president and prime minister) are no longer here: they had so much to tell about Arbak,’ concluded Mumladze, gamgebeli (prefect) of Marneuli district in 1992–95…

— Let us return to our conversation.

— Of course. Yes, but I cannot leave this unmentioned either. Thanks to a large donation to the Georgian side, Arbak managed to arrange the entry into Armenia of 150 KamAZ trucks loaded with wheat. As an expression of gratitude, he has now approached Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan with a proposal to name a street after Ilia (Mamuka) Gvarishvili, who headed the administrative bodies division of Georgia’s ministerial office in 1992–2003. I would have said nothing about Arbak Khachatryan if I did not mention two episodes that I would call decisive. The first concerns preventing an incursion and military action by USSR armed forces special units in Shahumyan.

Arbak Khachatryan’s role in that matter is undeniable. It was through his mediation that Vladimir Foteev, a member of the USSR Supreme Soviet and chairman of the Union monitoring and oversight commission on the NKAO, contacted Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, the last minister of the USSR armed forces, and something incredible happened.

The troops ready to enter Shahumyan pulled back… Can you imagine? It became possible by halting a session of the USSR Supreme Soviet and getting in touch with Shaposhnikov. Future generations will speak about the landing of six Boeings loaded to the brim with weapons at a critical moment in the Karabakh war. I will confine myself to quoting the republic’s first president’s assessment: ‘A golden bust of Arbak should be erected in Artsakh.’ When we conveyed the president’s words to Arbak, he merely gave a wry smile…

I cannot say more; I have no right to…

P.S. 1

Today, amid the coronavirus pandemic raging across the world, Arbak Khachatryan has begun implementing a major regional project. It is vital to Iran, Armenia and Georgia in terms of resolving the problem of ‘closed borders.’

In parallel, without any state assistance, work is underway on unprecedented cultural projects involving prominent figures in the arts from Armenia, Georgia, Russia and the West.

Another noteworthy fact: Arbak Khachatryan’s legal successors, his wife and son, are preparing to bring two lawsuits, one in Armenia and the other in Russia. The Khachatryan family’s legal team told us that the aim is to unravel years of unlawful actions and restore justice.

In the 1990s, a process to neutralize Arbak Khachatryan at any cost began with the knowledge of Armenia’s top leaders.

He was arrested several times, and in a flagrant violation of the law, the Khachatryan family was stripped of all its property. According to the lawyers, the documents and evidence in their possession are unquestionably sufficient to secure redress for the material and non-material damage inflicted on the Khachatryans. It was also emphasized that, according to the claimants, the state will not bear the compensation burden, amounting to tens of millions of dollars. The claim is to be satisfied by former senior Armenian officials who participated in dispossessing the Khachatryans.

The lawsuit to be brought against the Russian authorities is expected to be no less sensational.

In 2003, the Armenian authorities, represented by President Robert Kocharyan, sent a semi-official letter to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), asking it to deal with Arbak Khachatryan, an adviser to the Russian president’s human rights commissioner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was also informed of the letter (compromat.ru, iz.ru, argumenti.ru).

We should point out that presidential elections were taking place in Armenia at the time, and if the opposition united, Robert Kocharyan had no chance of governing the country for a second presidential term.

Khachatryan, meanwhile, had considerable influence over the country’s domestic political processes.

The arguments in the letter to Russia’s special services for neutralizing Khachatryan are as revealing as they are laughable. What did that letter not contain? ‘Human rights advocate Arbak Khachatryan organized the murder of Tigran Naghdalyan; he is a great friend of Osama bin Laden and Islamist extremists; he supplied Chechen militants with Igla antiaircraft missile systems,’ along with other ‘information’ from the realm of fantasy.

In 2003, Arbak Khachatryan was arrested and spent 2.5 years in the notorious Lefortovo detention facility. However, the charges against him were not substantiated. Finally, we should add that the well-known Russian lawyer Vladimir Levin is handling compensation for the material and non-material damage arising from Arbak Khachatryan’s wrongful detention in Russia.

P.S. 2

We also approached Arbak Khachatryan for comment. Regarding the lawsuits, he said only briefly that, given Armenia’s budget, plundered and depleted over decades, he would not allow the claim to be directed against the state. ‘What budget is there for me to demand compensation from the state as well?’ he emphasized.

As for cooperating with Armenia’s new authorities, the human rights advocate emphasized: ‘Of course, it is encouraging that the country’s current government is not mired in corruption. But is that enough to move the country forward?

Armenia’s previous leaders were like that too when they came to power. Moreover, they were men who had been through the war. But we saw how money and power corrupted them. They tore the country apart. Today, young people have come to power who have neither seen war nor any idea of what it is. They inherited a plundered country, an enormous foreign debt and a devastated economy from their predecessors. They have no experience in diplomatic relations, and we see the mistakes being made in relations with geopolitical centers.

Nikol Pashinyan did not manage to embark on genuine structural reforms from the very start. As a result, the former rulers continue to control the banks and financial resources, the judiciary and the security agencies. Dismissing this or that official does not mean changing the system. Major state institutions operate according to schemes drawn up by the predecessors. The arrogance of the new authorities is also incomprehensible. One gets the impression that the number-one criterion for governing the country is how much someone has walked.

On the other hand, coronavirus is simply destroying the country in every direction. I will not even speak about infection and death figures.

The economic consequences of the infection will make themselves felt very soon.

And most puzzling of all, when you present a concrete program or give clear advice on resolving problems in various areas, you immediately encounter officials’ ‘jealousy.’ They think you aspire to come to power or take their jobs.

It is as if everyone imagines himself to be Napoleon. They do not even know that Napoleon ruined France (smiles — editor). This is an illness characteristic of all our governments. Most importantly, the world will no longer be what it was. Before our eyes, the world’s financial and banking systems are collapsing. Money will no longer have its former role and significance.

And it is a historical pattern: when one center collapses, a new one takes its place. It may sound ridiculous or unbelievable now, but our region, with the same triad of Iran, Armenia and Georgia, could become that new center. If, of course, we can overcome the infection that has engulfed the world — I do not mean coronavirus…

Now you tell me: is it time to cooperate with Armenia’s new authorities, or not?’

From the editors:

In fact, it was difficult to prepare this piece: each of the episodes described above is the plot of a book. Arbak Khachatryan is categorically opposed to being ‘promoted.’ Nevertheless, we will persist in uncovering all these historical episodes and presenting them to the public.

Instead of an epilogue, one quotation from Khachatryan: ‘World leaders naturally want their countries to develop and their people to live well, but they do not always achieve this at the right time. Russian President and history-changer V. V. Putin, after leading the superpower for about three decades, recently enshrined in law that a state official may not hold dual citizenship or bank accounts abroad.

Yet the same Putin not only grants citizenship to Armenia’s leaders but also gives them shares in leading companies.

Concluding his remarks, Khachatryan urged people not to keep blaming former leaders. The blame lies with the flawed system and its agents. It is precisely those systems and their adherents that should be fought. The former leaders are already former leaders.

So every era has its own values.’