The “Fact” daily writes:
Many issues related to the Second Artsakh War and its catastrophic causes, results and consequences remain open or vague, and there are many question marks hanging in the air. It is true that the authorities are trying to assure that they are transparent to the people, but they are keeping a number of events secret from the people. For example, the report of the NA Investigative Committee investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war of 2020, which could somehow shed light on some issues, has not been published and has been sent to the first (secret) section of the National Assembly. That is, it is not available to the public. The justification is that this report contains confidential information. And there are even assurances that although the full version will remain closed, separate parts of the report that do not contain state secrets will gradually become available to the public. However, the problem is not only confidentiality. The authorities have also not yet given answers to simple questions that have nothing to do with secrecy at all, and the answers to which the public should have known long ago.
For example, it is still unknown how many victims the Armenian side officially suffered as a result of the war, which gives rise to different interpretations, even at the official level. In particular, during a visit to the CEVRO University in Prague, the President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan voiced the number of victims in the 44-day war, stating 4,800. Naturally, the president of the country must have been familiar with some data for such a statement, otherwise he would hardly have voiced any specific number.
But the interesting thing is that not long after, with great speed, the presidential staff denied that number, stating that there had been an error, and the number of victims was 3,755. If we look at the statements of government representatives over time, we can come across completely different, unrelated numbers, for example, 3,833, 4,273, 3,825, 3,815, and now 3,755. This is an extremely sensitive topic. After all, we are dealing not with mere statistical data or some financial indicators, but with specific people, human destinies, people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the homeland. And each of them deserves special respect and honor. Moreover, every fallen hero should be remembered, commemorated by name and surname. But, as we have already seen, for the authorities, these destinies are not important and do not even matter. Although, what can you expect from a government, an authority whose leader speaks positively about our martyrs, noting:
“Our number of victims will be around 4,000, plus or minus 50.” Perhaps immediately after the war it was possible to speak of approximate numbers, taking into account that what happened was still fresh and needed clarifications and clarifications. In that case, it would have been possible to approach the difference in numbers with understanding. But the most surprising thing is that six years have passed since the war, but we still do not have a clear picture. Was it difficult to find out and publish the number of victims and missing persons with specific names and surnames? Of course not. This issue can be resolved very quickly and once and for all. In that case, the question arises: why do the authorities not publish the lists of victims and missing persons, so that this issue is closed once and for all? Or maybe they are afraid to publish such a list, what are they afraid of? And is it not logical that there are doubts among people as to why this data is not published, there are doubts that these numbers are significantly different from what is being presented now. It is no coincidence that after the war and to this day, different numbers are circulating, including rumors of 5 thousand victims, moreover, much higher numbers are even found on social networks, which makes the KPA people fall into hysteria, and Ararat Mirzoyan was even so excited that he allowed himself such an expression: “I will curse the father of lies that we have that many victims.” If there is no complete, clear list of victims, it is natural that there will always be different interpretations, different numbers, even speculations, as presented by the authorities.
Only denial does not eliminate doubts until there is a final confirmed list. In order to avoid such contradictions, so that there are no “speculations”, there is only one way: publish the names of all the victims and missing persons, and that's it. Then those who have been victims or do not have information about their children or relatives will see if their relatives or children's names are on that list. If there are no “gaps”, no reactions, everyone will understand that, yes, our victims are exactly as many as are presented. If there is nothing to worry about, why is there this delay, what prevents publishing that list?
