«Մեր առավելությունը մեր զինվորի մեջ էր...» - Հարցազրույց Արկադի ՏԵՐ-ԹԱԴԵՎՈՍՅԱՆԻ հետ

The article is devoted to an interview with the legendary military commander Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Commandos), one of the key organizers of the Armenian armed forces during the initial period of the Karabakh war. The material was published in issue No. 1 (22) of the publication and represents an extensive conversation about the transition of Soviet Armenian officers to the side of the national liberation movement and about the formation of the Artsakh army.

Introduction and methodology. The publication is structured as an interview in which Commandos consistently reconstructs the chronology of events from the late 1980s to the early 1990s: from the crisis of Soviet identity among Armenian officers to the formation of combat-ready fedayeen detachments and a regular army.

Key thesis. The central thesis of the interview is that the superiority of the Armenian side under conditions of manifold numerical and technical inferiority was ensured not so much by military strategy as by the fighting spirit of soldiers defending their own land. This thesis is supported by examples of the capture of Shushi and the defense of individual villages, where the calculated force ratios did not correspond to classical military norms.

Thematic sections:

The crisis of consciousness among Soviet Armenian officers against the backdrop of the collapse of the USSR and the beginning of the national movement, the contradiction between the military oath and growing national self-awareness;
The asymmetry of forces at the initial stage of the conflict: Azerbaijan's advantage thanks to Soviet military resources, blown-up Armenian ammunition depots, the spontaneous formation of fedayeen detachments;
The role of officers as military advisors: teaching tactics in field conditions, introducing military discipline and regulatory principles of combat conduct;
Interaction with Soviet troops: the dual role of the allied units — supporting the Azerbaijani side while simultaneously undermining its fighting spirit;
The absence of class barriers between the officer corps and the fedayeen, in contrast to the experience of the First Republic;
The personal contribution of individual commanders, including Monte Melkonyan and Valery Chichyan, as well as criticism of insufficient state recognition of the merits of war veterans.

Conclusion. The key conclusion of the interview is that victory was achieved through the organic unity of the small officer corps and the volunteer fedayeen movement, as well as the high morale of the fighters, which compensated for the shortage of weapons and manpower. At the same time, Commandos points to a systemic problem of contemporary Armenia — insufficient state support for the memory of war heroes and the absence of an ideology of patriotic upbringing, which, in his opinion, weakens the continuity of moral authority necessary for the young state.