Mikael Hambardzumyan was appointed as acting head of the NSS on October 8
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) A former official who ran Armenia’s National Security Service during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh has hit out at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, saying that he could have stopped hostilities three weeks before the ceasefire brokered by Russia on November 9.
Mikael Hambardzumyan was appointed as acting head of the NSS on October 8 eleven days after Azerbaijan launched offensive military operations in and around Karabakh. Pashinyan replaced him by another senior NSS officer, Armen Abazyan, one month later.
In an interview with the Fifth Channel TV station aired late on Monday, Hambardzumian claimed that he himself decided to leave Armenia’s most powerful security service because of Pashinyan’s handling of the war. He singled out the prime minister’s failure to accept a more favorable ceasefire agreement which was negotiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 20.