Today, the Mayor of Kapan, Gevorg Parsyan confirmed the surrender of all strategic military highland positions to Azerbaijan, reports News.am & Sputnik Armenia.
“The Ministry of Defense has issued an order to hand over to the enemy, by 5pm tomorrow, all the positions we held for the defense of Kapan,” the mayor said.
According to him, as a result, Kapan will become defenseless.
The safety of both Kapan and nearby villages is under threat, said Parsyan, noting that residents of the region are awaiting the arrival of the Armenian Defense Minister.
According to him, the volunteers units were told to retreat by the Ministry of Defense from their equipped positions to the “Soviet borders,” that is, from those that ensure the security of both the city of Kapan and the surrounding villages.
“There will be no longer this security zone. The enemy will be 1 km from our residential zone, and 200-300 meters from the airport. Our rural roads will be blockaded. This is an ugly situation,” Parsyan said.
Asked whether there were negotiations on handing over these military positions, Parsyan said: “I suppose there were negotiations, but, at least we did not participate in those negotiations.”
He noted that there was a talk about the deployment of Russian border guards in Kapan. “According to my information, the main mission of the border guards will be to ensure the safety of the roads,” he added.
Gevorg Parsyan said that in case of retreat from these military positions, two motorways leading to Kapan’s villages will be under a blockade. “That is, the roads of those villages will be in the Azerbaijani border zone. (“¦) and the other [motorway] direction (“¦) so many villages will be under blockade,” he said.
Parsyan said that at the moment the situation among the population was tense. “The adversary will be only one kilometer away from our residential area,” he said.
The mayor of Kapan demands the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
And to the question whether it will be possible to keep certain military positions if a new government is formed, the mayor said: “I believe: new government, new opportunity, new standing.”
