«Հավատա ինքդ քեզ՝ հակառակ Տիեզերքին» - հարցազրույց Արթուր ԻՇԽԱՆՅԱՆԻ հետ

Arthur Ishkhanyan's article "Believe in Yourself, Against All the Universe" is devoted to the history of the formation of the Armenian military-industrial complex during the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods, as well as to an analysis of the causes of the subsequent crisis in Armenia's scientific and technical sphere. The material is structured as an interview in which the author — a theoretical physicist and participant in the Karabakh Movement — reconstructs the chronology of events in which he himself took direct part.

Personal Context and the Formation of Worldview

Particular attention is given to biographical figures who influenced Ishkhanyan's convictions:

Leonid Azgaldyan — one of the first organizers of armed resistance, who was convinced of the necessity of creating a strong Armenian military-industrial complex;
Sergei Khashkhayan — the author's relative, who as early as Soviet times foresaw the inevitability of armed conflict and independently gathered weapons.

Both figures are described as people of exceptional inner conviction, for whom the struggle for justice was inseparable from personal ethics.

Weapons Production Amid the Karabakh Movement

The author describes in detail the practical side of the work of initiative groups after Sumgait:

the development of a hand-held grenade launcher from improvised materials together with engineer Grant Azizbekyan;
the parallel work of several groups on submachine guns, pistols, and grenade launchers of various types;
the activity of Leonid Azgaldyan's group in creating unguided rockets based on locally produced fuel;
tests conducted at a firing range on the slopes of Mount Aragats in January 1990;
attempts to organize weapons production directly in Karabakh.

The role of specific enterprises ("Armelectro," "Orbita," the Machine-Tool Plant) and of coordinators of the process, in particular Artavazd Zakaryan, is emphasized.

The State Stage and Its Termination

After the creation of a regular army, the work moved to the Engineering Center of the Academy of Sciences and acquired the status of a state program. Ishkhanyan notes:

the existence of serious scientific potential for creating modern weapons systems;
the fierce protests of developers against the policy of purchasing weapons abroad instead of developing domestic production;
the gradual closure of all relevant projects, despite official objections (in particular, the documented position of General Norat Ter-Grigoryants).

Assessment of the Causes of the Crisis

The author points to a combination of external and internal factors: geopolitical pressure aimed at curtailing an independent military-industrial complex, and the economic self-interest of middlemen who profited from foreign arms deliveries. The consequence was a mass drain of engineering and scientific personnel — the emigration of specialists and their shift into the commercial sector.

Conclusion

The key conclusion of the article is that the abandonment of the development of an independent military-industrial complex in the 1990s was a strategic mistake, now acknowledged even at a high state level, and that restoring the country's scientific and defense potential nearly fifteen years later requires significantly greater effort than preserving the base that already existed at the moment of independence.