Top Armenian military rejects Minsk invite as he “has visited Karabakh”

PanARMENIAN.Net - A top Armenian military official has rejected an invitation to participate in the 90th anniversary of the formation of Belarusian DOSAAF as he “has visited Nagorno Karabakh.”

DOSAAF is the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet.

Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos), who heads the Armenian DOSAAF, is currently supervising the training of specialists in the Armenian armed forces.

He is known as the "mastermind of Shushi liberation," having been named commander of the operation (dubbed Wedding in Mountains) to seize the strategic town in Karabakh.

In a Facebook post, Komandos said he had to reject the invitation as he “had been to Nagorno Karabakh.”

The extradition by Minsk of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan has strained diplomatic ties between Armenia and Belarus.

Lapshin, 40, divides his time between Israel and a few other places. He was arrested on December 15 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, at the request of Azeri authorities who demanded his extradition. The arrest was made one day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Lapshin was arrested following his visits to Karabakh as well as due to critical posts in his Russian-language blog against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.