«Do you remember any case where I said ‘We are winning’»: Hovhannisyan on the slogan ‘We will win’ announced at briefings

Unfortunately, we have lost, and this needs to be studied thoroughly. This was stated today by the former spokesperson of the Armenian Ministry of Defense, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, in a briefing with journalists in the National Assembly.

In response to a question about the slogan ‘We will win’, announced daily during the 44-day war, Hovhannisyan remarked, ‘Do you remember any case where I said ‘We are winning’? You are so emotional that you don’t analyze anything. An international organization provided me with a detailed analysis of my statements made during the 44-day war a month after the war. I had 400 publications during those 44 days; approximately 170 publications included ‘We will win’, not ‘We are winning’. These are different things. There were 168 occasions where statements balanced between 50/50 revealed that there was war, it was very hard, meaning sobering statements.’

Artsrun Hovhannisyan expressed his opinion that in the aftermath of the war, there is an attempt to find traitors under emotional influence, and he noted that it is very painful for him that traitors are particularly being sought among military personnel. He emphasized that the information he provided to the public was obtained exclusively from the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and the Armed Forces.

Regarding Shushi, Hovhannisyan mentioned that there are many things that remain unclear to him. ‘On the 6th, I was in Shushi. After the 6th, on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, the situation in Shushi changed drastically,’ he said. ‘Three to four months have passed since the war; I study the events of the war day by day. But there are things that I cannot make sense of in my mind.’